in 1494 manutius made the aldine press in venice. the aldine press printed its first material in february 1495. pier francesco barbarigo owned half of the aldine press. andrea torresani owned the other half. manutius shared part of what torresani owned with him. aldus manutius wanted to save ancient greek literature. he wanted to make it so that everybody could read what the greeks had written a very long time ago. he did this by printing copies of things they had written. he wanted to make the letters he used in printing to look like the handwriting of latin and greek humanists. people in venice usually wrote in curly connected letters. printing presses only used square looking letters back then. by making letters that were all connected and curly, manutius could make the things he printed more personal. manutius paid francesco griffo of bologna to make the new letters used in the printing press. the letters that griffo made were used to print cardinal pietro bembo's "de aetna" in 1495. these letters were also the first model of italic type. the letters were used until 1501.