The Punchcutter of Venice
A Novel of the First Italic Type

About this book:

In the fog-choked canals of 1501 Venice, a surly Bolognese punchcutter and a visionary printer conspire to shrink the world. Francesco Griffo wants only to be left alone with his steel, his files, and his wine; Aldus Manutius wants to fit a library into a saddlebag. Between them lies the invention of italic type—a slanted, swift, impossibly compact letterform that will make books portable, knowledge democratic, and the printed page feel like a living hand.

History remembers Aldus. It forgot the man who carved the letters.

From the damp workshop of San Polo to the blaze of the hardening hearth, *The Punchcutter of Venice* renders the birth of the modern book in microscopic, sweat-and-soot detail. Here is the geometry of a counterpunch, the politics of a privilege, the terror of a broken letter, and the fierce, unspoken bond between two difficult men who changed how the world reads—one hammer tap at a time.