Francesco Torniello

Francesco Torniello since Novara (* 1490, † 1589 in Treviglio, Italy) was a Milanese typographer, writer and Franciscan who was known by the first written geometrical specification of a font for Latin capitals. It can therefore be regarded as a pioneer of mathematical typography.

Life

The Tornielli were in the Renaissance a wealthy extended family, some of whose members in Barengo lived, belonging to the province of Novara, and some in the city of Novara itself but there is no surviving evidence that Francesco belonged to one of these two branches of the family and of there then later moved to Milan. Two brothers, Francesco and Giovanni Antonio da Novara are Torniello 1525 is documented in Milan, as Duke Francesco Sforza of Milan gave them the citizenship.

In the work of Milan's Museo Novarese historian Lazzaro Agostino Cotta from 1701 Francesco Torniello is described as an expert in geometry and arithmetic, who worked as a writer. As a single work provides, however, is only a book entitled Opera del modo de fare le littere maiuscole antique, which appeared in Milan 1517.

A Francesco Torniello joined in 1519 the Order of the Franciscans and became known for his sermons some notoriety. It is impossible to prove with certainty that it is one and the same person, but speak according to estimates by Giovanni Mardersteig more circumstantial evidence: The ages fit together and also the Franciscan is in respect to his professional career prior to joining the order described as a scribe. The Franciscans still then published another work entitled De Unitate Ecclesia Dei, of which, however, no copy is known. He died in 1589 in the Franciscan monastery in Treviglio in extreme old age.

Work

Following the detailed and admiring reference from Tornielli in his work to Luca Pacioli, we know that he must be either met him or he at least was the work Divina Proportione available. This work contains, inter alia, geometric representations of all the Roman alphabet. Pacioli font represented at that time the culmination of a development in the Renaissance, which sought to take over the Latin letters old inscriptions and grave stones as faithfully as possible and to perfect it in their geometric configuration. This development began in 1460 with an archived in the Vatican manuscript of Felice Feliciano and was continued by Damian Moyllus 1483 or 1484. These fonts were not yet intended primarily for letterpress printing, but as a template for artistic inscriptions. As tools for the design of each letter only ruler and compass were available. Up to and including the work of Pacioli, however, only the final designs were presented along with some design elements such as circles and used the bounding rectangle or square. A full written specification to match the charts lacked, however.

In this regard, entered Torniellos factory Opera del modo de fare le littere maiuscole antique, the Milan of Gotardo da Ponte was printed and published in 1517, breaking new ground. It starts with the fact that Torniello defined a 18x18 grid, which serves as a coordinate system. The double side length of a grid was defined as the point. This is the first known definition of a point as a typographic unit of measurement. However, it is not likely that Pierre Simon Fournier the work of Torniello knew when he 1737 also introduced the point as typographic unit of measurement. The point as a unit and the grid easier Torniello very geometrical specification in writing, as the following example for the letter " A" illustrates:

The letter A is formed from the square. The thickness of the right leg should be one-ninth of the vertical; it should start outside the square, where it touches the circle that passes through the top horizontal half a point to the left of center, and in the underlying corner of the square ends with the circles as you see them drawn. All outer circles have a radius of a point and a radius of the inner half a point measured from the center of a circle to its periphery. The left leg should have half the thickness of the right and the inside line should have a starting point that coincides with the center of the top line of the square, and end one half a point ahead of the baseline, a point within the left vertical line of the square. The transverse line should comprise a third of the thickness of the right leg, wherein the upper line should coincide with the horizontal line in the center of the square.

While Torniello largely took over the designs of Pacioli, he departed with the letter " M", " R", " S" and " T" clearly from his example. In particular, the letter "S" and "T" were enriched by calligraphic details that were copied by later typographers. Thus we find, for example, the design of parallel diagonally cut upper serif of the "T " in the alphabet of Albrecht Dürer again. Only the "M" was considered in the comparative analysis of Giovanni Mardersteig successful than less. Furthermore Torniello be added to the alphabet "Z", which can be considered as a proof that these fonts are also increasingly being used for non-Latin texts.

On the letter " R" and " S" is also further peculiarities of the construction drawings of Torniello reveal. So he was responsible for all arcs used in each complete circle segment together with the indication of the respective radius was measured in points. In the accompanying text, the associated coordinates are specified.

Further development in the Renaissance

Torniellos work and the alphabets of his predecessors, especially of Pacioli and Sigismondo Fanti ( 1514), significantly influenced the further development. Giovam Baptista Verini published in 1526 in Florence, in the third volume of his work Luminario an alphabet that is largely derived from the designs of Pacioli and Fanti, but took over from Torniello the definition of the point as the ninth part of the side length. In contrast to Pacioli and Torniello the much larger circles fall on at the serifs, so these appear much heavier.

In 1528, Albrecht Dürer published in Nuremberg in 1525 created his designs to his alphabet. Dürer knew his Italian predecessors quite well and was guided mainly by Pacioli and Torniello. As the first he put both variants, the completed character based on Pacioli and the design sketches according to the model of Torniello, side by side represents the screening took Dürer also of Torniello. However, the sizes of the serifs are more like those of Pacioli. They are slightly less delicate than that of Torniello, but significantly smaller than that of Verini.

Shortly thereafter, but in full knowledge of the work of Albrecht Dürer and Italian models published Geoffroy Tory in 1529 his work Champ Fleury in Paris. He took it by Albrecht Dürer, the dual representation corresponding to the Torniellos and Pacioli and also related a grid, but this is in contrast to the dimensions of Torniello to 10x10. However, much larger circles came for the serifs used that. Rather resemble those of Verini than the smaller circles of Torniello or Pacioli

The departure from the circle as a tool of typography by Ludovico degli Arrighi was in 1523, and in particular by Francesco Cresci in his work Essemplare di più sorti lettere of 1560 initiated. Cresci studied again the ancient inscriptions and came to the conclusion that the originals are not just on the circle based constructions. For example, based the adjacent "B" on the relevant form in the inscription on the pedestal of Trajan's Column in Rome. In his summary Cresci therefore writes in conclusion: I have come to the conclusion that Euclid, who, if he would return to our world Prince of geometry, would never come out that the curves of the letters with the help of circles drawn with circles constructed could be that they conform to the dimensions and the style of the ancient letters.