Figure 112
Corsivo Grosso: Stamperia Vaticana Specimen, Rome
From a copy in Harvard College Library (facsimile), Wellcome Collection (scan)
1628
For late sixteenth century and early seventeenth century types we have a valuable source-book in the 1628 specimen of the Stamperia Vaticana… The italic corsivo grosso is an interesting and varied character, full of movement and style, and was probably cut by Robert Granjon for this printing house, and may be the font which the Pope of that day desired to restrict to its private use. In this corsivo, the lower-case z’s and final e’s, the double s and the “swash” C and D, are to be looked at.