The Mandrake Root

Photography by Jennifer Arundel
Graphic Design by two thirds design
Concept Simon & Den Woods
Fonts by Nicolas Jenson & Ludovico degli Arrighi

Based on Botticelli’s Venus the art work is produced in three version. Authentic 15th & 16th Century fonts by have been used in the poster and movie. .

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Ludovico degli Arrighi
Born: Cornedo Vicentino Died: Rome, 1527

The Mandrake Root title is produced in a combination of two forms of Operina produced by font design studio P22. Operina is based on a 16th-century lettering model of the scribe Ludovico degli Arrighi (Vicentino Ludovico degli Arrighi) used in his 1522 instructional lettering book, “La Operina da Imparare di scrivere littera Cancellarescha.” This book contains what is considered to be the earliest printed examples of Chancery Cursive.

Nicolas Jenson
Born: Bar-sur-Aube, Champagne, 1420 Died: Rome, 1480

The body copy used in the artwork and movie is an Adobe version of a Jenson font. Master of the French royal mint at Tours, in October 1458 Nicolas Jenson was dispatched by King Charles VII to Mainz, Germany, to learn the new art of printing. By the time of Charles’ death in 1461, Jenson had still not returned. He left Mainz the following year, when the city was sacked, quite possibly with Sweynheim and Pannartz. These three were the first to introduce the invention of printing to Italy. It is suggested that Jenson did not wish to return to a France under the new king, Louis XI.

Jenson arrived in Venice around 1467, printing and publishing there from 1470 to 1480. His types, based on the upright calligraphic styles of the time, are regarded as among the very best of the Renaissance, indeed of all time.

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