 Although Garamond himself remains an eminent figure in French printing of the sixteenth century, historical research over the last century has increasingly placed his work in context.Garamond was one figure among many at a time when new typefaces were rapidly produced in sixteenth-century France, and these type designers operated within a pre-existing tradition defined by the work of figures such as Aldus Manutius who were active over the preceding half-century.The period from 1520 to around 1560, encompassing Garamond's career as an artisan, was an extremely busy period for typeface creation, with a wide range of fonts created, some apparently for exclusive use by a specific printer, others sold or traded between them.