| Date: 1501
Designer:
Francesco Griffo
Foundry:
Aldus Manutius founder and printer Location:
Venice, Italy Current equivalent:
MT Dante Italic
See also:
Cloister Old Style Italic, Griffo Classico Italic, MT Bembo Italic by Frederic Warde and Bruce Rogers
Technologies:
Metal (foundry)
Metal (machine)
Photosetting
Postscript
Opentype |
| Famous for:
The first italic typeface. Applications: Book Publishing & General Purpose Text Setting Ubiquity:
Widely used Category:
Venetian Italic Stress: Angled
Serifs: Oblique | | Design history:
Griffo's italic could fit more words per line because of the narrowness of the letterforms. Manutius used this to achieve an ambition for bringing reading books to a wider audience in a pocket book format (4.5 by 6.5 inches). For this reason, traditional type families may include an italic and a condensed roman, but never a condensed italic. Francesco Griffo was a Bolognese punch cutter working for Aldus Manutius, who is known to have created at least seven roman types, three italics, four Greeks and a Hebrew type; although his work is admired as the foundation of type design in the western world, none of his punches or matrices have survived to the present day. | |  |
