Jenson, Nicolas

Jenson or Janson, Nicolas

(both: nēkôlä` zhäNsôN`), d. c.1480, Venetian printer, b. France. Jenson studied printing with Gutenberg at Mainz for three years. He was one of the first to design roman type, which was far superior in beauty and alignment of characters to that of John of SpeyerJohn of Speyer
, d. 1470, first printer in Venice, b. Bavaria. He designed and patented the first type purely roman in character. It appears in Cicero's Epistulae ad familiares and Pliny's Historia naturalis, both printed in 1469.
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. He started publishing under his own name and with his own type in 1470 in Venice, producing numerous celebrated and beautiful editions. His roman type of 1470 furnished inspiration for Garamond, Caslon, William Morris, Bruce Rogers, and other masters. After his death, his type was used by the Aldine Press.