Claude Garamond's Inspiration to the field of Typography

fter Garamond’s death in poverty at the age of 81, his wife had to sell all of his type punches. Many people who purchased these items and former customers of Garamond helped spread his typeface throughout Europe. Two of the most notable examples would be Christopher Platin of Antwerp, who brought the typefaces to Holland, and André Wechel, who populated them in Germany. After a while, the typeface got replaced by other type letters.

The 20th century marked the start of the type’s resurrection and become popular again. In 1919, M.F. Benton and T.M. Cleland designed a modern Garamond for the American Type Founders Company. The type gained a lot of popularity in both Europe and North America. In 1921, Frederic Goudy recreated another Garamond type for the Lanston Monotype Company of America. In 1922, the Monotype “Garamond” by the Monotype Corporation appeared in the market.

These modern recreation’s type source, however, was not made by Garamond himself. In 1926, Beatrice Warde published her research in The Fleuron, stating that caractères de l’université that was used as models for the modern Garamond, was Garamond type revivals by Jean Jannon from the time period after 1615.

The modern revival that used the type from the original artist is Linotype Granjon in 1924 by George W. Jones and Stempel’s “Garamond” in 1925.