Italics#
20 April 2024
italics
(adjective) Of or being a style of printing type patterned on a Renaissance script with the letters slanting to the right: This sentence is printed in italic type. [1]
Origin#
16th century, from the Latin word Italicus, from Italia, Italy. [2]
Example#
Notes#
There once lived in Italy a man called Aldus Manutius, who started a printing press called Aldine Press. This was the time of the Renaissance. The Aldine Press printed several Greek and Latin works, for which Manutius used typefaces that resembled human handwriting. Thus was born the italic typeface, which was used for the first time in 1501 in the Aldine Press publication of Virgil. The print run was a blockbuster. Usual print runs were for 200 - 500 copies. This one, with the italic typeface, ran to 1000 copies.
Manutius had a copyright for the typeface within Venice (from where the Aldine Press operated). However, it became very popular and others used it outside Venice, where Manutius couldn’t enforce his copyright. The italic typeface spread outside of Italy, and lives to this day.