Terry Bain
Author of YOU ARE A DOG http://amzn.to/1GTUrXf & WE ARE THE CAT. Full of the dickens. More | http://terrybain.com
Generally, serifs have a longer history than san serifs, as they were the first typefaces used to print the novels following the invention of the Gutenberg Press.
A Typeface Overview For Print And Web Design
Nick Babich
1999
Except… well… no they weren’t. The Gutenberg Press used a blackletter face based on calligraphic handwriting. And they likely weren’t printing any novels… not enough people could read to make a serious go at printing novels (which nobody was even writing for the first hundred years after the invention of movable type).
