He based it on pure Roman forms and also introduced for the first time an italic form based on a cursive handwritten style. It comes from the time of Aldus Manutius, a powerful renaissance scholar, printer and publisher in Venice who employed a genius punch cutter named Francesco Griffo who in turn was responsible for creating a new alphabet of moveable type designed specially for an essay written by the literary scholar Cardinal Bembo which Aldus Manutius was publishing. It is probably the most elegant of book text faces that I use and only aficionados will know of its curious provenance. Although Bembo looks as fresh as a daisy and is quite at home in a newly printed book it is in fact over 500 years old. Anyone who is familiar with typefaces (it’s my job) will know the name Bembo.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |