Bembo
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You need JavaScript enabled and the latest version of Flash Player to see this type sample.Credits
- Designer(s)
- Stanley Morison, Francesco Griffo
- Foundry(ies)
- Add
- Release Year
- 1929
- Country of Origin
- Italy
- Classification
- Serif, Old Style, French Old Style
- Original Format
- Metal (Machine Composition)
Background
Bembo is the name given to an old style serif typeface based upon a face cut by Francesco Griffo, first printed in February 1496 (1495 more veneto). Griffo worked in the Venetian press of the humanist printer Aldus Manutius.
The face was first used in the setting of a book entitled De Aetna, a short text about a journey to Mount Aetna written by Italian Cardinal Pietro Bembo. The typeface would serve as a source of inspiration for typefaces of the Parisian publisher Claude Garamond, which are collectively called Garamond.
The typeface Bembo we see today is a revival designed by Stanley Morison for the Monotype Corporation in 1929.