Cover Libro nuovo d’imparare a scrivere Giovanni Battista Palatino 1540

Giovanni Battista Palatino ( 1515 - 1575), also known as Giambattista, was an Italian calligrapher. He was born in

Rossano Rossano is a town and ''frazione'' of Corigliano-Rossano in the province of Cosenza, Calabria, southern Italy. The city is situated on an eminence from the Gulf of Taranto. The town is known for its marble and alabaster quarries. The town is t ...

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, but moved to Rome as a young man. In 1538, Palatino acquired

Roman citizenship Citizenship in ancient Rome (Latin: ''civitas'') was a privileged political and legal status afforded to free individuals with respect to laws, property, and governance. Citizenship in Ancient Rome was complex and based upon many different laws, t ...

, much to his pride. Palatino's ''Libro nuovo d'imparare a scrivere'' is the best-known

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

treatise on calligraphy. He dedicated it to the ''Academia dello sdegno'' (Academy of the Disdainful), of which he was secretary. As a calligrapher, Palatino was fascinated by

ciphers In cryptography, a cipher (or cypher) is an algorithm for performing encryption or decryption—a series of well-defined steps that can be followed as a procedure. An alternative, less common term is ''encipherment''. To encipher or encode i ...

and generally by the metamorphosis of the alphabet. The

serif In typography, a serif () is a small line or stroke regularly attached to the end of a larger stroke in a letter or symbol within a particular font or family of fonts. A typeface or "font family" making use of serifs is called a serif typeface ...

typeface designed by

Hermann Zapf Hermann Zapf (; 8 November 1918 – 4 June 2015) was a German type designer and calligrapher who lived in Darmstadt, Germany. He was married to the calligrapher and typeface designer Gudrun Zapf-von Hesse. Typefaces he designed include Pa ...

and released in 1948 was named after Giambattista Palatino.

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Palatino, Giovanni Battista 1510s births 1570s deaths 16th-century calligraphers Italian calligraphers People from Rossano