Jan Januszowski

Jan Januszowski (1550–1613), son of Łazarz Andrysowic, a Krakow printer, heir of the Hieronim Wietor publishing house. He was a comprehensively educated humanist. His father's printing house became his property in 1577. He quickly put it on a level of the best European printing houses. He used carefully cut and cast letters, following the example of Plantin's designs. At the Sejm (Polish government meeting) in 1588, he received nobility for his services, and two years later, Sigismund III awarded him the title of Architypographer. Januszowski was the creator of the first Polish original typeface, Nowy Karakter. He presented the first two sets of the new "straight and oblique Polish" in the gros-texte degree in 1594. Later, a large part of the matrices and stamps of these fonts found their way to the printing house of the Zamoyska Academy, organizing which Januszowski worked at the request of the chancellor and hetman Jan Zamoyski. About Januszowski in: Printers of old Poland from the 15th to the 18th century, vol. 1, Małopolska, part 1, XV – XVI century. Ossolineum 1983.