Lately I’ve had a consuming obsession with ampersands. Seriously. What a sweet little glyph, it's kicky and cute, and the American Typewriter ampersand is tattoo-worthy ;). Perhaps most interesting is the typographic history that ampersands hold. Italic type was developed independently from roman type, and only became a roman subsidiary in the mid-16th century. Italic types were based on 15th century Italian handwriting (hence the name?) and they look thoroughly calligraphic. This is especially apparent in the italic ampersands in many old-style typefaces. It isn’t just a sloped roman, but a totally independent form!
