Bembo is a typeface that was developed in 1929, but was based on the print in a 1495 work from called De Aetna.   The De Aetna type, as it is called, was cut by Francesco Griffo for a printer named Aldus Manutius in Venice.

Most Venetian types from the time of Jenson had been rather closely adapted from the humanist manuscript hand, and therefore tended to be somewhat heavy in stroke and serif…  Francesco Griffo must receive much of the credit for the departure of the punchcutter from slavish dependence on the pen-drawn characters. The engraving of a steel punch…allows refinements beyond the scope of the reed or the pen.  It is evident that Griffo realized the potential of his tools in the creation of letterforms at once livelier and more precise than those of the scribes. (Lawson)

The modern typeface was named after Pietro Bembo, an Italian poet who wrote a short book about a journey to Mount Aetna.  That text was the original purpose of the De Aetna typeface.

Bembo has been very popular for setting books and long texts since the 1930s, although one of the most charming uses to date has been to build a zoo.