Bembo

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.

"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."

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.

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.

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.”