Roman Type

We shall look at the Roman type engraved by Francesco Griffo for Pietro Bembo’s De Aetna which was printed by Aldus Manutius in Venice in 1496. We shall try to understand the details and structure of that type and how it can be interpreted to make modern letterforms (Roman, sans serif and other styles). This will be done with with a 3B pencil — an ideal tool for understanding historical Roman type. The starting point for our work will be blown-up photos of the original De Aetna type.