Lecture 3 - The history of type

Type And Typography

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Todays lecture focused on type. We learnt about the origin of type and language. Type being a written version of a language, it is our way of being able to document which languages exists. It is impossible for us to know every language spoken, but as type is a written from of language, that can be our form to document which languages we do know exist.  Speech made visible. 

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia
/commons/2/23/Rosetta_Stone.JPG

Type is symbols used to express language 'Type is what language looks like'- Ellen Lupton. It is a way for use to communicate from distance, via letters, emails, text messages etc... It is an everyday thing. There is a lot of  history behind type, in 1799 the Rosetta stone was discovered, this was a tablet with type in three different languages inscribed onto it, each language saying the same thing. This stone was studied for years, and was used to figure out the different languages use of type.  

http://spartacus-educational.com/
EDforsterWE.jpg

Thanks to a man named William Foster (1870) the ability to read became mandatory, due to him creating the education act. Prier to this reading was only for the wealthy and the church. Reading was considered a rather womanly ability as well, due to it being something for wealthy wives to do while there husbands worked.
  

I found this lecture to be very informative, I hadn't considered how much history there would be behind type, it was very interesting to learn about where it has originated, and to how it has come to be what we know today.