Edition of Hypnerotomachia poliphili (1499), printed by Aldus Manutius in Venice, considered the first "modern book", composed of Roman characters (and Greek), illustrated in black and white. Hypnerotomachia is considered by some as one of the most beautiful books ever published. Click here for a very interesting site devoted to the book.1. The cinematic visual logic!
2. Decorated initials (an amazing florid and leafy detail job by Manutius)
3. The so-called Technopaegnia: Besides displaying a remarkable level of visual culture and clarity, the Hypnerotomachia must also be seen as an extraordinary visual-typographical-textual "assemblage" of a type not repeated until the avant-garde books of the 1920s and 1930s. Among its feats of typographical ingenuity, the form of goblets and drinking vessels is reproduced in the layout of the text in the page.
4. Then there is the the bembo lower typeface:
