* is not included in the register on fol. 308^a and being
followed by a second title-page its absence, if accidentally
omitted, might pass unnoticed. Italic letter, 39 lines to the page,
six- to seven-line spaces with guide-letters left for the initials
of the thirty books, which in the present copy are supplied in gold
and colors. Numerous paragraph-marks in alternate red and blue.
Ruled in red. Renouard, p. 66. Firmin-Didot, p. 370.
The italic type of Aldus, a cursive or semi-cursive roman, the
counterpart of his cursive Greek, was modeled as he himself informs us
on the handwriting of Petrarch _a lettra per lettra_. It first appeared
in the Vergil of 1501, the first of his octavo series of classics and
only three months later, as was but just, in _Le cose volgari_ of
Petrarch. It had at the outset, corresponding to the Greek ligatures,
many double letters and even groups of three cast on the same body,
which were for the most part eliminated later by Paulus Manutius.
Originally it consisted only of lower-case letters and borrowed the
capitals of the roman font, using for economy of space small capitals
which DeVinne points out as the useful invention of Aldus.
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