How did cursive handwriting influence the development of italic type?

Italic type was directly inspired by the informal, cursive handwriting styles developed by Renaissance humanists to facilitate rapid writing. Specifically, the development of italic type was influenced by the cursive script of the Italian scholar Niccolò Niccoli, whose speedy, narrow, and slightly inclined hand served as a model for early type designers.12

This style, known as cancellaresca (chancery) cursive, was used by papal scribes for official documents and correspondence. In 1501, the printer Aldus Manutius and his typecutter Francesco Griffo introduced the first italic typeface, designed to mimic this humanistic cursive. Manutius sought a compact, economical, and highly readable typeface for a new series of small-format, scholarly books, and the cursive-based design allowed for more text to fit on a page compared to traditional roman type.314

While early italic type was initially used for entire texts, it eventually evolved into the "special function" adjunct to roman type that is common in modern printing.34