Dante is a mid-20th-century old-style serif

typeface A typeface (or font family) is a design of Letter (alphabet), letters, Numerical digit, numbers and other symbols, to be used in printing or for electronic display. Most typefaces include variations in size (e.g., 24 point), weight (e.g., light, ...

designed by Giovanni Mardersteig, originally for use by the Officina Bodoni for books. The original type was cut by Charles Malin. The type is a serif face influenced by (but not directly indebted to) the types cut by

Francesco Griffo Francesco Griffo (1450–1518), also called Francesco da Bologna, was a fifteenth-century Italian punchcutter. He worked for Aldus Manutius, designing the printer's more important humanist typefaces, including the first italic type. He cut Roman, ...

between 1449 and 1516. Mardersteig had become acquainted with Griffo's type in the design of his previous typeface, called Griffo. One of the primary objectives in designing Dante was in keeping a visual balance between the roman and italics (in Griffo's time typefaces were cut in roman style and italic style, but not both). The name of the typeface comes from the first book in which it was first used,

Boccaccio Giovanni Boccaccio ( , ; ; 16 June 1313 – 21 December 1375) was an Italian writer, poet, correspondent of Petrarch, and an important Renaissance humanist. Born in the town of Certaldo, he became so well known as a writer that he was s ...

's ''Trattatello in Laude di

Dante Dante Alighieri (; most likely baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri; – September 14, 1321), widely known mononymously as Dante, was an Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer, and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called ...

'', published in 1955 by the Officina Bodoni. The book used types cut by Malin between 1946 and 1952. The date of the typeface is sometimes given as 1954. Dante would become one of the most used types by Mardersteig. Originally Dante was cut for use on the private handpress, but

Monotype Monotyping is a type of printmaking made by drawing or painting on a smooth, non-absorbent surface. The surface, or matrix, was historically a copper etching plate, but in contemporary work it can vary from zinc or glass to acrylic glass. The ...

had already expressed interest in issuing Dante for machine composition before 1955. This was about the same time that Malin died, and Monotype was also interested in adding a semibold weight to the Dante family.

Matthew Carter Matthew Carter (born 1 October 1937) is an English type designer.A Man of Letters

, in his twenties at the time, was recruited to cut some of the initial punches of the semibold. Monotype issued its Dante in 1957. Dante was redrawn for digital use by Monotype's Ron Carpenter in 1993.

References

{{Monotype typefaces Digital typefaces Letterpress typefaces Monotype typefaces Old style serif typefaces