Francesco Griffo (1450–1518), also called Francesco da Bologna, was a fifteenth-century Italian punchcutter. He worked for

Aldus Manutius Aldus Pius Manutius (; ; 6 February 1515) was an Italian printer and Renaissance humanism, humanist who founded the Aldine Press. Manutius devoted the later part of his life to publishing and disseminating rare texts. His interest in and preser ...

, designing the printer's more important humanist

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, ...

s, including the first

italic type In typography, italic type is a cursive font based on a stylised form of calligraphic handwriting. Along with blackletter and roman type, it served as one of the major typefaces in the history of Western typography. Owing to the influence f ...

. He cut Roman, Greek, Hebrew and the first italic type. Aldus gives Griffo credit in the introduction of the ''Virgil'' of 1501. However, as Manutius had achieved a monopoly on italic printing and Greek publishing with the permission of the Venetian government, he had a falling-out with Griffo. Griffo then went to work for Gershom Soncino, whose family were Hebrew printers. It was with Soncino that Griffo's second italic type was cut in 1503. In 1516 he returned to Bologna where he began print publishing. In 1518 Griffo was charged with the murder of his son-in-law, who had been beaten to death with an iron bar. This is his last appearance in the historical record. He is presumed to have been executed.

Influence

Griffo's typefaces have been very influential. His Romans show a degree of abstraction from calligraphy not present in the work of the earlier master

Nicolas Jenson Nicholas (or Nicolas) Jenson (c. 1420–1480) was a French engraver, pioneer, printer and type designer who carried out most of his work in Venice, Italy. Jenson acted as Master of the French Royal Mint at Tours and is credited with being the cr ...

, while his italic and Greek types are notably

cursive Cursive (also known as joined-up writing) is any style of penmanship in which characters are written joined in a flowing manner, generally for the purpose of making writing faster, in contrast to block letters. It varies in functionality and m ...

. Philip B. Meggs wrote in ''A History of Graphic Design'', "Griffo researched pre-Caroline scripts to produce a roman type that was less artistic but more authentic than Jenson's designs". The italic type was designed to look like handwriting of the humanist scholars. This more personal form of type became widely popular in Europe. Typefaces based on his work include

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 ...

Poliphilus roman,

Bembo Bembo is a serif typeface created by the British branch of the Monotype Imaging, Monotype Corporation in 1928–1929 and most commonly used for body text. It is a member of the "Serif#Old-style, old-style" of serif fonts, with its regular or ro ...

Book roman, Bembo Titling, Morris Fuller Benton's Cloister Old Style italic, Jack Yan's JY Aetna roman,

Bitstream A bitstream (or bit stream), also known as binary sequence, is a sequence of bits. A bytestream is a sequence of bytes. Typically, each byte is an 8-bit quantity, and so the term octet stream is sometimes used interchangeably. An octet may ...

Aldine 401 roman, and Franko Luin's Griffo Classico roman and italic; more distant descendants include the romans of Claude Garamond, Giovanni Mardersteig's

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 ...

, Robert Slimbach's

Minion Minion or Minions may refer to: Places *Minions, Cornwall, a village in the United Kingdom People *Frank Minion (born 1929), American jazz and bop singer *Fred Minion, English professional footballer *Joseph Minion (born 1957), American film ...

and

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

's Yale Typeface.

Publications

The publications of Francesco Griffo's at Bologna as cited by ''Francesco Griffo da Bologna: Fragments & glimpses: a compendium of information & opinions about his life and work.'' *''Canzoniere et triomphi di messer Francesco Petrarcha'', 20 September 1516. *''Archadia del Sannazaro'', 3 October 1516. *''Gli Asolani di Messer Pietro Bembo'', 30 October 1516. *''Labirinto d amore de Messer Giovanni Bocaccio nomato il Corbaccio'', 9 December 1516. *''M. Tull. Ciceronis Epistolae familiares accuratius recognitae'', 20 December 1516. *''Volerii Maximi dictorum et factorum memorabilium libri nouem'', 24 January 1517.

Influence

Publications

References

Further reading