Gutenberg’s Black Letter types were gradually replaced by a lettera
antica style during the Renaissance. This was preferred by Humanist writers and
scholars and was more open and easy-to-read, although gothic typefaces have
remained popular to this day, just gradually declining in use.
Nicholas Jenson merged the gothic with the Italian type
styles and came up with straighter lines and more regular curves, for the first
roman typefaces. His fifteenth-century type was named after him and is still
used today. Others from that time that are still in use are Garamond, Palatino
and Bembo.
Trivia break: 
Jenson designed beautiful
capitals that echoed carved letters seen in Roman architecture. His typeface
was very readable and balanced, and even as late as the nineteenth century, he
had admirers that imitated or evolved his style, including William Morris of
the Arts and Crafts movement.
Because of their lighter shapes, roman letters lent themselves
to another possibility: italics,
which allowed for more words on a page due to the cursive letters being closer
together. Aldus Manutius created these for his newly invented portable books.
Italics saved time and space.
By the sixteenth century, those in the printing business
were creating type families that included both roman and italic letters.
Nowadays, of course, we use italics to stress a phrase or word or for a
publication or film title. Italicizing is a popular tool in design.
Italics, however, are not just slanted roman letters.
Italics carry over some elements from the parent roman letters in their type
family, but are a completely different shape. Often this can be seen most
clearly in the letter “a” – which in italics can appear as “a”.
