The Venetian printer, Aldus Manutius, revolutionised the appearance of books by creating smaller books that were not only portable but also scholarly and cheap. His type designer, Franceso Griffo, designed a new compact typeface that would condense the text into a smaller space. The typeface was based on the informal cursive writing style of the papal chancery and is now known as italic. It became the perfect complement to roman type and a substitute for the use of red.

Petrarch. Le cose volgari. Venice: Aldus Manutius, 1510.