“The connoisseu, up to and including Bruce Roers, thought that the roman types of Jenson were the best model to follow. Typefaces based on his work include Monotype Poliphilus roman, Bembo Book roman, and Bembo Titling, Morris Fuller Benton‘s Cloister Old Style italic, Jack Yan‘s JY Aetna roman, Bitstream 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, Robert Slimbach‘s Minion and Matthew Carter‘s Yale Typeface. (via Wiki) Griffo’s typefaces have been very influential. Nothing inthe wall can testify that Francesco Griffo has lived here. I wish Bologna, where there are treasures like the oldest university in Europe, would give the right attention and value to such things. I imagine that if Griffo was an English, French or German, those countries would have already valorized his contribute to the world culture, and probably his house could have been by now a museum with a long que of visitors. Though, you can’t find any mention of it here in his hometown, not even on the house he used to live in, which was and still is S.
26ĭespite Griffo’s importance in the history of typography, the fame he deserved arrived only after his death. Four Centuries of Fine Printing (fourth edition), 1960. His reputation largely rests upon the cursive of italic letter of Francesco Griffo, with he was the first to employ, and the octavo class set in this letter.” Stanley Morison. His work is, in the main, without ornament. “…Aldus was not greatly interested in typographic decoration. Just 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. He worked for Aldus Manutius, designing that printer’s the Greek and the Roman types, including Bembo, and the first italic type. He was one of the most important and influencing punchcutter and typeface designer in the Reinassance period and in the two following centuries. Here, in Bologna, just 300 meters from my home Francesco Griffo was living 500 years ago.