El carajo de Acuña de Figueroa

July 2020

Coranto 2 in use in the Argentinian edition of El carajo de Acuña de Figueroa by Eduardo Orenstein, a research about Acuña Figueroa’s poem Nomenclatura y apología del carajo


 

Francisco Acuña de Figueroa (1791–1862) was an Uruguayan poet and writer well known for writing the words of the national anthems of Uruguay and Paraguay.

Among many other texts, he wrote a satirical poem about male genitalia, Nomenclatura y apología del carajo (translated as Nomenclature and defense of the male sex) in the 1850s. For obvious reasons it was not printed until later, in 1922, and only in some kind of private circulation.

Insula Editora, publishing house from Argentina has recently edited a double volumen with the original text from Acuña de Figueroa, letterpress printed. The second volume includes the research by Eduardo Orenstein, eclectic writer from Uruguay, regarding the origins of the Nomenclatura and the controversies of the later editions.

Gustavo Ibarra, type designer and typographer, designed the Orenstein’s booklet, El carajo de Acuña de Figueroa. Inspired by Eric Gill’s Essay on typography (1930), he choose Gerard Unger’s Coranto 2 for the composition: “Coranto 2 matches perfectly with this approach, it brings a clear and compact line of text, and provides a classic and contemporary style at the same time”.
 







 

About Us

TypeTogether is an indie type foundry committed to excellence in type design with a focus on editorial use. Additionally, TypeTogether creates custom type design for corporate use. We invite you to browse our library of retail fonts or contact us to discuss custom type design projects.