page_title: Grecs du roi
hierarchical_section_title: Grecs du roi
caption_attribution_description: English: Original punches for the Grecs du Roi metal type by Garamond. Original photographer's description (French): Exposition Le Livre à la Renaissance, exposition des trésors de l'Imprimerie Nationale et de ses savoir-faire, pour Le Livre sur la Place de Nancy 2013 Français&#160;: Poinçons de Grecs du Roi, gravés par Claude Garamont. Exposition Le Livre à la Renaissance, exposition des trésors de l'Imprimerie Nationale et de ses savoir-faire, pour Le Livre sur la Place de Nancy 2013
context_page_description: Les grecs du roi are a celebrated Greek typeface designed by Claude Garamond in 1541 and containing a very large number of ligatures.
  The grecs du roi were ordered by Robert Estienne on behalf of King Francis I of France. The design was based on the handwriting of the Cretan copyist Angelo Vergecio, and include a vast variety of alternate letters and ligatures to achieve this. Arthur Tilley calls the resulting books "among the most finished specimens of typography that exist".
  The grecs du roi design placed significant demands on printers, since it requires a choice among the many possible types for every word, in contrast to Latin-alphabet general-purpose typefaces which do not attempt to simulate handwriting as closely. Most following typefaces for Greek have been much simpler. Gerry Leonidas, a leading expert on Greek typesetting, has commented that Vergecio's handwriting "has all the marks of a script that is unsuitable for conversion to [printing]. That it was the model for the widely-copied grecs-du-roi was, with hindsight, unfortunate."
context_section_description: Les grecs du roi are a celebrated Greek typeface designed by Claude Garamond in 1541 and containing a very large number of ligatures.
  The grecs du roi were ordered by Robert Estienne on behalf of King Francis I of France.  The design was based on the handwriting of the Cretan copyist Angelo Vergecio, and include a vast variety of alternate letters and ligatures to achieve this. Arthur Tilley calls the resulting books "among the most finished specimens of typography that exist".
  The grecs du roi design placed significant demands on printers, since it requires a choice among the many possible types for every word, in contrast to Latin-alphabet general-purpose typefaces which do not attempt to simulate handwriting as closely. Most following typefaces for Greek have been much simpler. Gerry Leonidas, a leading expert on Greek typesetting, has commented that Vergecio's handwriting "has all the marks of a script that is unsuitable for conversion to [printing]. That it was the model for the widely-copied grecs-du-roi was, with hindsight, unfortunate."
caption: Garamond's original punches for the Grecs du roi type, which remain the property of the French government.
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