Which historical designs are known as some of the best italics ever drawn?

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Martin Silvertant
Martin Silvertant Posts: 166
in Type History
This question would be very subjective if it asks about the best italics, but I'm curious which historical designs have been considered to be among the best. I know of Roos Cursief, which is quite a recent design. I'm mainly interested in older designs.
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  • Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian
    Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian Posts: 2,044
    How old?

    BTW when it comes to De Roos, this (not very cursive at all) is a true gem.

  • Martin Silvertant
    Martin Silvertant Posts: 166
    edited October 2016
    From the first italic types onward. Griffo and Aldus are often mentioned, but I reckon they're the first and not necessarily known to be the best.

    Romanée is often mentioned as well with its upright italics.

    I'm just interested in what historically has been said about particular designs. So among the archetypical typefaces through the centuries, I'm interested in which italics stood out as being particularly good, and likely inspired other typefaces.

    As for the name Cursief, I think this is more of an older Dutch naming convention than a distinction being made between cursive and italic.
  • James Puckett
    James Puckett Posts: 2,018
    Morison wrote several essays on this topic. They’re currently available in Letter-Forms in Manuscript and Print from Cambridge University Press.
  • PabloImpallari
    PabloImpallari Posts: 819
    edited October 2016
    You can borrow it online at https://archive.org/details/selectedessayson02mori

    Update:
    Sadly, this is vol2 only, starts at page 200 aprox.
    Anyone know if vol1 is online somewhere?

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