“Nicholas Jenson . . . former master of the mint at Tours . . . had been sent to Mainz in 1458 by the French king to learn Gutenberg’s secret, [and] returned to France in 1461. Finding that the son of Charles VII, who had succeeded to the French throne, was not not interested in the new art, he emigrated to Italy where he met with more enthusiasm.
Some time before 1470 he started printing in Venice. He so perfected the roman small letters that his type forms became models not only for printers in his own day but for all since who have cared for the beautiful letter forms.
Jenson’s type was beautiful, and the letters fitted harmoniously together on the page because he did not try to imitate handwriting, as did so many of the early printers and type-cuttters, but accepted honestly the medium in which he worked. He took as inspiration a fine manuscript hand, but only as inspiration, and then worked as an independent craftsman in metal. He did not try to follow the pen slavishly.
This French maker of coins and types brought much glory to Venice. . . . Another Venetian who followed him and used his fonts of type, however, won even greater fame both as printer and type designer. Aldus Manutius was his name.
Aldus . . . put more care into the designing and setting and arranging of his type and the actual printing than had most of his predecessors. He produced some of the finest books of all times. Others had printed large books; he made small and cheap ones, well printed and easy to read. A special type that he designed for these little books, based on a slanted “familiar,” or local, handwriting was the first italic type.”

—Oscar Ogg, The 26 Letters, 1961.