| Date: 1495 Designer:
Francesco Griffo Foundry:
Aldus Manutius founder and printer Location:
Venice, Italy Current equivalent:
Monotype Bembo shown above
See also:
MT Poliphilus, MT Dante by Giovanni Mardersteig, BT Venetian 401, Yale Type by Matthew Carter
Technologies:
Metal (foundry)
Metal (machine)
Photosetting
Postscript | | Famous for:
The first 'old style' type. Applications: Book Publishing & General Purpose Text Setting Ubiquity:
Widely used Category:
Old Style (Garalde) Roman Stress: Vertical
Serifs: Oblique | | Design history:
Aldus Manutius' roman defined the essential form of printed letters in Europe for the following three centuries. This type was the model for the roman of Claude Garamond just thirty years later, and subsequently all the foundries of Paris, Frankfurt and Amsterdam. The collective works of Aldus and Griffo are referred to as the Aldine style in both type design and printing. This type was one of the most widely admired works of the incunabula, the early period of printing, used for the 'De Aetna' of Cardinal Pietro Bembo (after whom the Monotype text face of 1924 was named). Poliphilus, named for another, slightly later book, is the closest 20th century interpretation of Aldus Manutius' archetypal roman. |  |
