Cicero

El cícero es una unidad de medida tipográfica por la que se rige tradicionalmente todo el material de imprenta en España y en otros países de la Europa continental. Se divide en 12 puntos, equivalente a 4,5126 mm en el sistema Didot.1 Equivale aproximadamente a la pica anglosajona.

Esta medida no se encuentra internacionalmente unificada. En Estados Unidos, como en buena parte de los países hispanoamericanos, se la denomina pica y, aunque también se divide en 12 puntos, es algo menor y equivale a 4,2177 mm. En el sistema Fournier tiene también 12 puntos pero mide 4,200 mm y en la Imprenta Real de Turín (Italia) mide 4,776 mm.

[editar]Historia

El cícero fue inventado por el tipógrafo Pierre Simon Fournier en 1737. Fournier se basó en una letra de 11 puntos con la que se había impreso en 1469, en Venecia, las Epístolas familiares, de Cicerón. De ahí deriva el nombre de cícero.

El sistema fue perfeccionado algunos años después por François-Ambroise Didot. A diferencia de Fournier, Didot no se basó en ninguna letra existente, sino en el nonio o pie de rey. Estableció que 72 cíceros equivalían a un pie de rey y 12 puntos Didot a 13 puntos Fournier.

Marcus Tullius Cicero ( /ˈsɪsɨroʊ/; Classical Latin: [ˈkɪkɛroː]; January 3, 106 BC – December 7, 43 BC; sometimes anglicized as Tully[1]) was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, orator, political theorist, consul and constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.[2][3]

His influence on the Latin language was so immense that the subsequent history of prose in not only Latin but European languages up to the 19th century was said to be either a reaction against or a return to his style.[4] According to Michael Grant, "the influence of Cicero upon the history of European literature and ideas greatly exceeds that of any other prose writer in any language."[5] Cicero introduced the Romans to the chief schools of Greek philosophy and created a Latin philosophical vocabulary (with neologisms such as humanitas, qualitas, quantitas, and essentia)[6] distinguishing himself as a linguist, translator, and philosopher.

Petrarch's rediscovery of Cicero's letters is often credited for initiating the 14th-century Renaissance.[7] According to Polish historian Tadeusz Zieliński, "Renaissance was above all things a revival of Cicero, and only after him and through him of the rest of Classical antiquity."[8] The peak of Cicero's authority and prestige came during the eighteenth-century Enlightenment,[9] and his impact on leading Enlightenment thinkers such as John Locke, David Hume, and Montesquieu was substantial.[10] His works rank among the most influential in European culture, and today still constitute one of the most important bodies of primary material for the writing

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