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We owe to Italy the first books in Greek and Hebrew types. The first complete fonts of Greek types were used in Rome in 1465 and in Venice in 1472, as quotations in Latin text. The first book in Greek was printed in Milan in 1476. Before Aldus first book in Greek (1495), thirty-four Greek books had appeared in Italy. Aldus gave us the cursive model of Greek types that has generally prevailed until our time; prior to his types the Greek models were crude. The first books in Hebrew appeared in Italy in 1475. Almost needless to say these represent inventions in the making of types which were to influence deeply all the after time.

Some idea of Italian practical genius in printing may be obtained from the fact that they invented paragraphing in print as we now have it, introduced pagination, invented capital letters, first arranged punctuation and added all those features which make the modern printed book so much more easy to understand than the old manuscripts or even the first books that were printed. To them too we owe the title page with the information that it now conveys at a glance and many other features that are real discoveries.

Italy has a lot more history to discover on location, and one of best ways to do it is touring with your own private driver-guide.