What the hell are italics? First: proper italics aren't just the same letters but slanted — they've been slightly redesigned. Second: it turns out they come from Italy, hence the name. But the story begins with a man called Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg...
Johannes Gutenberg invented the first printing press in Europe around the year 1440. To get some sense of how revolutionary his printing press would be just look at the subsequent explosion in the production of books. History changed forever.
But... it wasn't obvious what font or typeface these new books should be printed in. A helpsome clarification: "typeface" refers to an overall style of letter design, whereas "font" refers to specific varations on that style. Roman is a typeface; Times New Roman is a font.