The John Rylands Library copy of the Aldine Virgil, printed on vellum, and illuminated with the coat of arms of the Pisani family of Venice. In the poem on the left page facing Virgil's text Aldus praised the skill of the punchcutter Francesco Griffo of Bologna who designed the new Italic type. This type, based o the Italian humanist cursive script or Cancellersesca originally developed in the 1420s by the humanist and Niccolò de' Niccoli, became the model for later Italic types.