Martina Plantijn
Klim Type Foundry · Kris Sowersby · 2023
Kris Sowersby's third engagement with Plantin — a rigorous revival that goes back to 16th-century sources at the Plantin-Moretus Museum, tightening the roman's proportions and giving the italic the Renaissance energy the original always lacked.
About
Martina Plantijn takes Frank Hinman Pierpont's 1913 text workhorse back to its primary sources: Robert Granjon's Gros Cicero (1569) and the specimens held at the Plantin-Moretus Museum in Antwerp. The roman corrects Plantin's overly wide proportions and uncertain drawing; the italic sheds its weak British-modern influence for something more compact and energetic, closer to the renaissance punch-cutters Pierpont was originally studying. The name honours Martina Plantin (1541–1599), daughter of printer Christophe Plantin, who ran the family printing business from 1610 to 1614.
Classification
Oldstyle serif revival rooted in Frank Hinman Pierpont's Plantin (1913), which itself drew from Robert Granjon's Gros Cicero (1569) and research at the Plantin-Moretus Museum in Antwerp. Variable weight axis spanning 300–900. Distinctive blunt-leg 'k' (a Pierpont signature) carried through related letterforms including R, K, Q and the italic f, j, z. Corner apexes clipped throughout for an analogue quality. Italic returns to Renaissance punch-cutters rather than the weaker British-modern influence of the original Plantin italic.