Interestingly, italic type was invented in 1500 in order to make smaller, more space-efficient books - so the first books in italics were in all-italics. It was

Interestingly, italic type was invented in 1500 in order to make smaller, more space-efficient books - so the first books in italics were in all-italics. It wasn't until decades later that italics started being used sparingly for emphasis. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italic_type#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italic_type#History