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Venice for Typophiles
Posted by rs_donsata in
26 Jul 2011 — 3:53pm
26 Jul 2011 — 3:53pm
Hi, I'm passing my honeymoon on Venice next November. Are there any type specific spots to visit? I tought that there would be some Nocholas Jenson or Aldus Manutius museum but I just can't find anything.
At least I can shoot a picture of the houses where the shops were located if somebody knows the location.
Thanks!
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27 Jul 2011 — 2:46am
I just can't find anything
… because there is nothing. The actual place of the Aldine officina is not known, nothing remained.
Maybe you make some discovery.
Besides that: scroll through the city, get off the beaten tracks.
Fine-tune your eyes for the glyphic language of the architecture. Go inside the churches and view engraved lettering on epitaphs and tombs …
Have a good time.
27 Jul 2011 — 9:13am
When strolling in Venice alway remember:
sempre diretto
27 Jul 2011 — 12:50pm
Carlo Scarpa is an italian architect who always took care of the lettering in his works, specially in tombs. Here you'll find a relation of his projects:
http://www.carloscarpa.es/Obras.html
One of the best known is the Olivetti Showroom in Piaza San Marco:
http://www.carloscarpa.es/Olivetti.html
Congratulations!
27 Jul 2011 — 3:09pm
This is the plaque on the wall of a modern building near the Piazza Manin, commemorating the workplace of the Manutii. I stumbled on this by chance when I was last in Venice, ten years ago.
27 Jul 2011 — 4:07pm
You will also find beautiful signs like this one I photographed there last year:
27 Jul 2011 — 5:00pm
Well, that´s a good starting poing John. I promise some good lettering snapshots and maybel I´ll buey something on the Olivetti Showroom.
27 Jul 2011 — 7:54pm
A few things from my visit to Venice a few years ago...
28 Jul 2011 — 4:38am
It's a strange advice for a person who's going to pass his honeymoon in Venice, but...
I live in Mestre and I recommend you to visit the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana (Marciana Library), the most important library in Venice and one of the most important in Italy (not only the museum: go into the library). There you can find a lot of incunabula and books of the sixteenth century (see OPAC at http://polovea.sebina.it/SebinaOpac/Opac). In Marciana there's the complete aldine collection (for example, there are two copies of DE AETNA by Pietro Bembo [IMPRESSUM VENETIIS IN AEDIBUS ALDI ROMANI MENSE FEBRVARIO ANNO .M.VD.]; the most beautiful copy is "ALDINE 380": it's a magic to hold it in your hands [but less then to hold your future wife in your arms]). Warning: to read requested book(s) you have to wait half an hour, at least; so, if you are going to take a visit, you must have clear ideas of what you want to see before entering. You can find information about the rules of the library at http://marciana.venezia.sbn.it/ (in italian).
And if you have time, you can visit "Tipoteca Italiana Fondazione": a typeface and printing museum in Cornuda (not so far from Venice; nevertheless there's some difficult to reach it by train). It's very very interesting (information at http://www.tipoteca.it/) and it's near to Asolo (remember Bembo) and not so far from the Dolomites (better than a museum for the honeymoon; and in november is not so cold yet).
Good luck.
28 Jul 2011 — 8:12am
Great, I won't miss the Marciana Library!
29 Jul 2011 — 12:38am
30 Jul 2011 — 12:34am
San Michele cemetary
31 Jul 2011 — 1:18pm
Yes, that even in Venice, workplace of Nicolas Jenson and Aldus Manutilus, we see Comic Sans used inappropriately... is hardly surprising.
1 Aug 2011 — 5:56pm
James, we have many of the same photos I think.
_____
If you find yourself in the vicinity of San Giorgio dei Greci, the Greek Orthodox cathedral, keep your eye open for a lovely sign that was outside when I was last there: an imaginative use of brass Latin letters to represent Greek. I recall an upside down U representing Π as the biggest stretch.
29 Nov 2011 — 10:18pm
I found it but i can't insert images, I get: onHTTPError: 500.
Apart from a very rewarding visit to the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana (no photos allowed) I had little time to watch for type and inscriptions but I will be posting a few pics the next days as soon as I can figure out the 500 error.
30 Nov 2011 — 6:09am
The Punchcut IT guys are working on resolving the image upload issues.
In the meantime, you can embed images using <img> tags if you want. If you have a lot of images, you might upload them all to Flickr, then embed one or two here with <img> tags, and then link out to the whole set there.
24 Jan 2012 — 8:42pm
Three humble Found Type Snapshots from Venice, next week I'll post a couple more from Rome:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hectormunoz/sets/72157623644292427/
24 Jan 2012 — 10:27pm
Sorry I had missed this thread!
Venice was one of the stops during my own honeymoon (back
in 1995). And we were lucky to have been there on a Tuesday,
since that's when you can catch a ferry to the Armenian island
of San Lazzaro, which is a surreal place even in the context of
Venice... Typographically, they have a truly amazing library
containing ancient, delicate tomes in numerous writing systems.
Related: http://armenotype.com/2010/11/remembering-the-mekhitarists/
BTW, I hope you had a great honeymoon!
hhp
26 Jan 2012 — 5:24pm
Yes, it was very good. We actually lost our train to Rome because I was on the Biblioteca Marciana sniffing the copy of De Aetna recommended by dfp, I'm sure I could have found a better use for those 150 euros but the experience was worth it and she forgave me soon.
1 Apr 2012 — 10:34pm
Ok, here are some pictures from Rome:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hectormunoz/sets/72157629356629948/with/703...
The last five pictures of this set are found type in Rome. Nothing original.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hectormunoz/sets/72157623644292427/
2 Apr 2012 — 6:28am
Nice!
Thanks for sharing.
hhp