![]() The semicolon, intended to represent a pause in a written text intermediate between that of a colon and a comma (and designed as a cross between the two), caught on immediately with the publication of De Aetna. The semicolon’s invention came at a time of widespread experimentation with punctuation and other aids to communication. In a review in the New Yorker, Mary Norris (“the comma queen”) called it “a scholarly treatise on a sophisticated device that has contributed eloquence and mystery to Western civilization.” My copy arrived today. The Paris Review article linked at the top of this post is an excerpt from Cecilia Watson’s new book, Semicolon: The Past, Present, and Future of a Misunderstood Mark. For example Ta-Nahisi Coates’s 2016 book Between the World and Me was set in Bembo. This copy came from Stanley Morrision’s collection and was probably the physical embodiment of his inspiration for the creation of Monotype Bembo.īembo was one of the more widely used typefaces of the XX th century for book work it is still far from rare. Friedlander’s essay, linked above, has a clear exposition on the influences from hand lettering on oldstyle letterforms.Ĭambridge University has in its collection a printed copy of the first edition of De Aetna that belonged to Bembo himself (!) it is marked up with emendations for the next printing, in Bembo’s own hand. Bembo is what is referred to as an oldstyle type, whose design patterns are influenced by the hand calligraphy that reigned before the invention of moveable type in 1450. In 1929, the Monotype Corporation in England introduced the Bembo type family, created by the renowned type scholar and designer Stanley Morrison, based on the De Aetna letterforms and later refinements Griffo made to them. According to this account by the modern book designer Joel Friedlander, “Typefaces based on work include Poliphilus, Cloister Old Style, Aetna, Aldine, Griffo Classico, Dante, and Adobe Minion.” Griffo’s type was a principal inspiration to Claude Garamond, among other later type designers. His intention with the work was to demonstrate his considerable learning and to provide an example of how classical scholarship could be offered for a modern (quattrocento) literate audience. In his literary reconstruction, Bembo presented the journey in the form of a Latin dialog with his father. Bembo’s collection of literature and art, begun by his father, was legendary in his lifetime.īembo’s pamphlet De Aetna recounts a journey up the volcano Mount Etna that he undertook in company with a student friend. Besides his scholarly classical work, his writings influenced the development and spread of a single Italian language (based on Tuscan), and his musical tastes helped to establish the madrigal as the most important secular musical form of the 16 th century. In later life Bembo was named a cardinal by Pope Paul III. Pietro Bembo as a cardinal in a portrait by Titian.īembo was raised in an aristocratic Venetian family and when young traveled with his father Bernardo, a diplomat, to posts in Burgundy, Florence, and Ravenna. It is believed that Griffo was executed for the crime. There, in 1518, in circumstances that remain shrouded in mystery, he beat his son-in-law to death with an iron bar - or so claims an indictment from the city authorities. Griffo then moved to the city of Fano and thence on to Perugia, where he worked for other publishers, and in 1516 returned to his home city to start his own publishing operation. This was just as Aldus had scored a Venetian government monopoly on the printing of Greek literature. Griffo worked with Aldus in Venice from 1494 until the two had a falling-out in 1502 - Aldus had pulled a fast one and sewn up the rights to use Griffo’s italic type for 10 years, without further compensation to the designer. Jenson for the title of most influential type designer can sound like football fans.) He got his start creating fonts inspired by the work of Nicolas Jenson, a French engraver, printer, and type designer working in Venice who had created one of the first Roman type faces a century before. Griffo was the premier punch-cutter of his age. Aldus also introduced what today we would call the paperback: portable, relatively inexpensive editions of books in a size referred to as “octavo.”Īldine put out 132 titles on Aldus’s watch (he died in 1515): Latin and Greek classics, dictionaries, and a few more modern works. Aldus was the first to use an italic typeface in print - type he commissioned from Griffo in 1501. ![]()
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