Les grecs du roi are a celebrated Greek

Greek alphabet

The Greek alphabet is the script that has been used to write the Greek language since at least 730 BC . The alphabet in its classical and modern form consists of 24 letters ordered in sequence from alpha to omega...

 typeface

Typeface

In typography, a typeface is the artistic representation or interpretation of characters; it is the way the type looks. Each type is designed and there are thousands of different typefaces in existence, with new ones being developed constantly....

 designed by Claude Garamond

Claude Garamond

Claude Garamond was a French publisher from Paris. He was one of the leading type designers of his time, and is credited with the introduction of the apostrophe, the accent and the cedilla to the French language. Several contemporary typefaces, including those currently known as Garamond, Granjon,...

 in 1541 and containing a very large number of ligatures

Greek ligatures

Greek ligatures are graphic combinations of the letters of the Greek alphabet that were used in medieval handwritten Greek and in early printing. Ligatures were used in the cursive writing style and very extensively in later minuscule writing. There were many dozens of conventional ligatures...

.

The grecs du roi were ordered by Robert Estienne

Robert Estienne

Robert I Estienne , known as Robertus Stephanus in Latin and also referred to as Robert Stephens by 18th and 19th-century English writers, was a 16th century printer and classical scholar in Paris...

 on behalf of King Francis I

Francis I of France

Francis I was King of France from 1515 until his death. During his reign, huge cultural changes took place in France and he has been called France's original Renaissance monarch...

 of France. The design was based on the handwriting of the Cretan copyist Angelo Vergecio. Arthur Tilley calls the resulting books "among the most finished specimens of typography that exist".

External links

• Graphê, association pour la promotion de l'art typographique -- includes a photo of the punches for les Grecs du roi, Vergecio's manuscript, and the first book printed with the Grecs du roi.