Francesco Griffo, an Italian punchcutter who worked for the book publisher Aldus Manutius, was born in 1450. He designed several Roman typefaces, the first of which was used in Pietro Bembo's "De Aetna". In 1501 Griffo designed and cut the first Italic typeface which was based on chancery style hand writing. All of Griffo's original punches are either lost or destroyed, however, some of his typefaces have been carefully reconstructed from the printed books in which they were used.