Dan BurzoJun 4
The August 1926 issue of Grafica Română features a specimen for Arhaic Românesc, a metal typeface designed, engraved, and cast in Romania in the Cyrillic-meets-Latin style popular at the time. The claim of “the first” in the introductory paragraph is ambiguous due to the sentence structure, but it may be “a first“.
Show threadDan Burzo

„Anul trecut, Turnătoria noastră, înțelegând neajunsurile în cari se zbate tiparul românesc, a acceptat cu toată bunăvoința, propunerea d-ui Virgil Molin, prim-redactorul revistei «Grafica Română» din Craiova, de a scoate o garnitură de caractere specific românești.”

(1/2)

Jun 4 at 10:01amWeb
Show threadDan BurzoJun 4

„În scurt timp, având la îndemână desenurile și îndrumările date de d-l Molin, a și apărut primul caracter, desenat, gravat, și turnat în țara noastră, numit «ARHAIC ROMÂNESC», atât de caracteristic pentru renașterea caracterelor noastre vechi.” (2/2)

= ”In a short amount of time we’ve already produced a first character, drawn, engraved, and cast in our country, named Arhaic Românesc, so exemplary for the rebirth of our old characters”

That troublesome comma complicates deciphering the claim.

Show threadDan BurzoJun 4

For more context, see @Sabinakipara’s AtypI 2018 presentation “Romanian archaic alphabets”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IW_PZG0ym0I

Sabrina Chipara - Romanian archaic alphabets

YouTube
Show threadDan BurzoJun 9
Indeed, in an article called “A first step towards the emancipation of Romanian printing” in the the Nov-Dec 1925 issue of Grafica Română, Virgil Molin claims Arhaic Românesc to be the first typeface fully designed and developed in Romania.
Show threadDavid JONESJun 4
@db reminds me of the episode of West Wing where Toby Ziegler, White House Communications Director, who is put on gardening leave for a misdemeanor, and as a "hobby" while restricted from working starts examining the U.S. constitution, and thinks he's found a mistake, based on a mark which may or may not be a comma, and may have been copied in error.
Show threadDan BurzoJun 4

@drj we had a fun one with the Romanian copyright law, which in its original 1996 edition said “any work whose term has expired will have its copyright prolonged by the period stated in this document”, which caused everyone to go:

1. surely you mean whose term *hasn’t* expired!
2. did you… just fuck over public domain works for everyone?