Bembo

¹

/ ˈbɛmbo /

noun

1. Pietro (ˈpjɛːtro). 1470–1547, Italian scholar, poet, and cardinal (1539). His treatise Prose della volgar lingua (1525) helped to establish a standard form of literary Italian

Bembo

²

/ ˈbɛmbəʊ /

noun

1. a style of type

Word History and Origins

Origin of Bembo¹

C20: named after Pietro Bembo (1470–1547), Italian scholar, poet, and cardinal, because the design of the typeface was based on one used for an edition of his tract De ætna by the printer Aldus Manutius

Example Sentences

In his book "The Light in Troy," literary scholar Thomas Greene points to a 1513 letter written by poet Pietro Bembo to Giovanfrancesco Pico della Mirandola.

Read more on Salon

"Imitation," Bembo writes, "since it is wholly concerned with a model, must be drawn from the model . . . the activity of imitating is nothing other than translating the likeness of some other's style into one's own writings."

Read more on Salon

He also loves to mention typefaces — Bembo, Baskerville, Garamond, Caslon and Janson come up a lot — and the names of beautiful papers: Amalfi, Fabriano, Nideggen.

Read more on New York Times

Its author, Pietro Bembo, is best known today not for his book but for the typeface, designed by Francesco Griffo, in which the first semicolon was displayed: Bembo.

Read more on The New Yorker

In her delightful history, Watson brings the Bembo semicolon alive, describing “its comma-half tensely coiled, tail thorn-sharp beneath the perfect orb thrown high above it.”

Read more on The New Yorker