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Konrad Sweynheim
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early roman face types
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Konrad Sweynheim

German printer
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early roman face types
early roman face types Early roman face types showing (top) a paragraph from the Lactantius printed by Konrad Sweynheim and Arnold Pannartz at Subiaco, Italy, 1465, one of the earliest attempts to create a roman face type, and (bottom) a section of the Eusebius, printed in Venice in 1470 by Nicolas Jenson, who is credited with producing the first true roman type form.

Konrad Sweynheim was a German printer who, along with Arnold Pannartz, established one of the first printing presses in Italy. They were instrumental in bringing printing to Italy, initially setting up in Subiaco near Rome around 1462-1463, and later moving to Rome in 1467.12

Sweynheim and Pannartz are noted for their use of typefaces. When printing Latin texts, they sought to move away from the Gothic script prevalent in Germany. For an edition of Cicero in 1465, they used a typeface intended to emulate the classical Roman script, which the Italians called Antiqua, and is known today as roman. This marked a significant development in typography, influencing the spread of roman type across Europe.12

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3 Britannica Sources
  1. printmaking - Italy
  2. typography - England
  3. history of publishing - Italy

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