The first thing to do was to find a suitable prototype to either revive or use as guidance in creating an ‘inspired by’ typeface. A great deal of study went into finding the ideal candidate, as discussed in detail here; ultimately, Francesco da Bologna/Griffo’s 1499 typeface as exemplified in Hypnerotomachia Poliphili was chosen.
As with other designs of that period, the actual materials used to produce the type have long been lost; therefore, a decent copy of the printed text was required which could be suitably reverse-engineered. Ultimately, a specimen from the Czech Manuscriptorium repository was chosen from available options.
The next step was to distil sample glyphs from the the text.