Claude Gamonant — Wikipedia

Claude Garamont , often spelled Garamond, born between 1499 and 1515 ^{[ first ]} In Paris where he died in 1561, is a tailor and character founder.

He is undoubtedly the most famous creator of French characters in XVI ^{It is} century and its celebrity exceeds that of craftsmen with comparable talent, like Robert Granjon, Pierre Haultin or Guillaume I Le Bé.

He owes in particular his celebrity to the engraving of the King’s Greeks, a series of cursive Greek fonts imitated with handwritten models, made at the request of François I ^is . It is particularly renowned for its Roman characters, which have inspired many fonts which bear its name (under the Garamond spelling).

Claude Garamont was born from a Breton printer father, probably from Morlaix (Yvon Garamour), based in Paris ^{[ first ]} .

He learned of his job with Antoine Augereau, a Parisian character tailor who had become a bookseller and printer ^{[ first ]} .

He began his career around 1534 as a founder of the golden sun workshop, led by Claude Chevallon and Charlotte Guillard ^{[ 2 ] , [ 3 ]} . According to R. Jimenes, it is undoubtedly there that he is spotted and distinguished by the chaplain of the king, Jean de Gagny, who frequently collaborates with the workshop of the sun of ^{[ 3 ]} .

In 1535, Garamont sold his first font at the Lyon printer Denis de Harsy ^{[ 4 ]} .

From 1539, Garamont seems to have been associated with the creation of the Greek printing house of Conrad Neobar, funded by the Royal Treasury, and dedicated to the publication of Greek texts ^{[ first ]} .

Thanks to this experience, in November 1540, Pierre Duchâtel, advisor and chaplain of François I ^is Order in Garamont the hallmarks of three bodies of a Greek police force at the expense of the king – the famous Greeks of the King. The contract of this order, discovered in 1973 by Annie Charon, specifies the working conditions of Garamont, who must reproduce the writing of the master Cretan writer angel Vergèce, to whom he must deliver the punches ^{[ 5 ]} . Robert Estienne, who has just succeeded Conrad Neobar as the King’s printer for Greek, is responsible for paying the engraver. The king’s Greeks are characterized by a very large number of spirits, accents and ligatures, which make them very pleasant to the eye but difficult to compose.

The matrices of the King’s Greeks leave in Geneva with the printing of the Estienne, but are bought by Louis XIII and integrated into the equipment of the new royal printing. Today they are classified as a historic monuments, and kept in the punch cabinet of the national printing.

According to the hypothesis of R. Jimenes, in 1541-1543, Claude Garamont was loaded with his brother-in-law Pierre Gaultier to create a printing house reserved for the future royal college, installed in the Hôtel de Nesle, opposite the Louvre, But the experience runs short ^{[ 6 ]} . He then tried the profession of bookseller, in association with Jean Barbé and Pierre Gaultier. Jean de Gaigny encourages him on this new path, but Garamont renounces this career after two years to devote himself fully to the engraving of punches ^{[ first ]} .

Garamont owes its celebrity to its Roman characters, whose quality is recognized throughout Europe, and which quickly supplant Gothic characters in use at the time. With the italic characters of Alde Manuca, they become the privileged support of the wave of reissues of Latin authors during the Renaissance.

From 1550, Claude Garamont took back his punches of Roman letters and especially italics, the latter according to the characters of Simon de Colines.

After his death in 1561, his testamentary executors, Guillaume I Le Bé and André Wechel, buy part of his equipment ^{[ 7 ]} . But most of the matrices and punches are subsequently acquired by Christophe Plantin d’Antvers, and Jacques Sabon, a Founder of Francfort-sur-le-Main.

According to Geneviève Guilleminot, who discovered his will, Claude Garamont seems to have joined the reform ^{[ 8 ]} . Indeed, unlike the habits of her time, her will invoke neither the Virgin, nor any saint. Garamont asked for modest funerals, in the presence of a simple vicar and commands no prayers or subsequent masses. He also associated himself around 1550 with an openly Protestant Strasbourg printer: Rémy Guédon ^{[ 9 ]} . His executor André Wechel declares openly his Protestant faith openly soon after.

Edition of Estienne du New Testament, printed in 1550, with the King’s Greek characters.

The life of Claude Garamond, just like that of Antoine Augereau, serves as a backdrop for Anne Cuneo’s novel, The Garamond Master. Antoine Augereau, engraver, printer, publisher, bookseller , published in 2003 by Stock editions (ISBN  2-253-10995-9 ) .

• Rémi Jimenes, Garamont, typographer of humanism , Edition of the Cendres, 2022. Biography, 288 pages. (ISBN  9782867423116 )