”An important humanist and scholar of the Italian Renaissance, Aldus Manutius, established a printing press in Venice at the age of forty-five to realize his vision of publishing the major works of the great thinkers of the Greek and Roman worlds. . . .
In 1501 Manutius addressed the need for smaller, more economical books by publishing the prototype of the pocket book. . . . [This] was set in the first italic type font. . . . Italic was closely modeled on the cancelleresca script, a slanted handwriting style that found favor among scholars, who liked its writing speed and informality.”

—Phil Meggs & Alston Purvis, Meggs’ History of Graphic Design, 2006.