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A: Roma, Lazio, Italy

Ludovico Vicentino degli Arrighi Issues the First Manual on Humanistic Cursive

1524 to 1525

A pamphlet of 32 pages entitled La Operina, issued in Rome in 1524-25 by a bookseller and scribe employed by the Apostolic Chancery, Ludovico Vicentino degli Arrighi, was the first book devoted to Humanistic Cursive (Littera Humanistica Cursiva, Cancellaresca, Cancellaresca all'antica). Each page was printed from a woodcut by Ugo da Carpi rather than from type.

Osley, Luminario: An Introduction to the Italian Writing-Books of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (1972) 27-34, suggesting that the two parts of this work were probably published in 1524-25, and that the dates 1522-23 on the t.p.'s are dates of composition. Among other considerations he notes the date 14 Feb. 1525 on b1v of the 2nd pt. In addition the present copy was probably printed in Venice rather than Rome, as Ugo obtained papal privilege for the blocks he had cut after only a few copies had been printed in Rome, and Arrighi left for Venice taking the blocks with him. 

• In 1524 Arrighi turned to printing and designed his own italic typefaces for his works.

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