CULTIVATED IMPRECISION
by Carlo Buffa
ANNOMILLE
Only now, in retrospect, have I gone back and given some thought to what the historical antecedents of the Annomille font were. Looking through my books and facsimiles of medieval manuscripts I was able to reconstruct my sequence of ideas and find the source of my inspiration, which I include, not simply to provide an intellectual justification for my work but to point out again (as though I really needed to) the distance that divides the large, freely written letters used in the colored headings found in manuscripts of the 11th or 12th century from a modern digital font, even one created with free use of the hand and eye.
“Sancti Ieronimi in Pentatheucum Moysis”—Detail from a 12th century Bible in the library of the Seminario Vescovile, Padua.
“In principio creavit Deus celum et terram”—Detail from a manuscript of Flavius Josephus in the Laurentian library, Florence.
“Reverentissimo et sanctissimo fratri Leandro coepiscopo Gregorius serws servorum Dei”—Page from a 12th century manuscript of the letters of Gregory the Great in the Marciana library, Venice
