Editing Aldine Press

{{short description|Venetian printing office}}
[[File:Page from the edition of Virgil printed by Aldus Manutius in 1501.jpg|thumb|Page from the Aldine Vergil of 1501, the first of the standard octavo Aldines. [[British Library]]]]
[[File:The true location of the Aldine Press in 1500.jpg|alt=First location of the Aldine Press|thumb|The true first location of the Aldine Press, ''civico numero'' 2343 ''Calle della Chiesa, San Polo'' on the ''campo Sant'Agostin'', Venice]]

The '''Aldine Press''' was the [[printing]] office started by [[Aldus Manutius]] in 1494 in [[Venice]], from which were issued the celebrated Aldine editions of the classics (Latin and Greek masterpieces, plus a few more modern works). The first book that was dated and printed under his name appeared in 1495.<ref name="Aldus and His Dream Book">{{cite book|last1=Barolini|first1=Helen|title=Aldus and His Dream Book|date=1992|publisher=Italica Press, Inc.|location=New York, New York|isbn=0-934977-22-4}}</ref>

The Aldine Press is famous in the history of [[typography]], among other things, for the introduction of [[italics]].<ref name="The Evolution of Type">{{cite book|last1=Seddon|first1=Tony|title=The Evolution of Type|date=2015|publisher=Firefly Books Ltd. 2015|location=Canada|isbn=978-1-77085-504-5}}</ref> The press was the first to issue printed books in the small [[octavo (book)|octavo]] size, similar to that of a modern paperback, and intended for portability and ease of reading.<ref name="Aldus and His Dream Book" />{{rp|82–84}} According to [[Curt F. Bühler]], the press issued 132 books during twenty years of activity under Aldus Manutius.<ref name="Aldus and His Dream Book" /> After Manutius' death in 1515, the press was continued by his wife Maria and her father Andrea Torresani ({{interlanguage link|Andrea Torresano|qid=Q3616075}}), until Manutius' son Paulus (1512–1574) took over. His grandson [[Aldus Manutius the Younger]] then ran the firm until his death in 1597. Today, the antique books printed by the Aldine Press in Venice are referred to as ''Aldines'',<ref name="The First Five Hundred Years">{{cite journal|last1=Bühler|first1=Curt F.|title=Aldus Manutius: The First Five Hundred Years|journal=The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America|date=1950|volume=44|issue=3|pages=205–215|doi=10.1086/pbsa.44.3.24298605|s2cid=180952781}}</ref> as are the letterforms and typefaces pioneered by the Aldine Press.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Vervliet|first=Hendrik|date=2008|title=The Palaeotypography of the French Renaissance (2 Vols.) : Selected Papers on Sixteenth-Century Typefaces|url=https://eds.a.ebscohost.com/eds/ebookviewer/ebook?sid=e891d897-3794-4cfa-8d40-0fefa311c440@sessionmgr4008&vid=0&format=EB|url-status=live|access-date=2021-09-23|website=eds.a.ebscohost.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210923213319/https://eds.a.ebscohost.com/eds/ebookviewer/ebook?sid=e891d897-3794-4cfa-8d40-0fefa311c440@sessionmgr4008&vid=0&format=EB |archive-date=2021-09-23 }}</ref>

The press enjoyed a [[Printing patent|monopoly]] of works printed in Greek in the [[Republic of Venice]], effectively giving it copyright protection. Protection outside the Republic was more problematic, however. The firm maintained an agency in [[Paris]], but its commercial success was affected by many counterfeit editions, produced in [[Lyon]] and elsewhere.<ref name="A Bibliographical Sketch of the Aldine Press at Venice" />

==Beginnings==
Aldus Manutius, the founder of the Aldine Press, was originally a humanist scholar and a teacher. Manutius met Andrea Torresani, who had acquired publishing equipment from the widow of [[Nicolas Jenson|Nicholas Jenson]]. The ownership of the press was originally split in two, with one half belonging to Pier Francesco Barbarigo, the nephew of [[Agostino Barbarigo]], who was the [[Doge of Venice|doge]] at the time, and the other half belonging to Torresani. Manutius owned one fifth of Torresani's share of the press. Manutius was mainly in charge of the scholarship and editing, leaving financial and operating concerns to Barbarigo and Torresani. In 1496, Manutius established his own location of the press in a building called the ''Thermae'' in the [[San Polo|Sestiere di San Polo]] on the campo Sant'Agostin in [[Venice]],<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Knoops|first=Johannes|title=In Search of Aldus Manutius a campo Sant'Agostin|publisher=Damocle|year=2018|isbn=978-88-943223-2-3|location=Venice, Italy|pages=17–23}}</ref> today ''numero civico'' (house number) 2343 San Polo on the ''Calle della Chiesa'' (Alley of the Church), now the location of the restaurant ''Due Colonne''.<ref name=":0" /> Though there are two commemorative plaques located on the building ''numero civico'' 2311 ''Rio Terà Secondo'', historians regard them to be erroneously placed based on contemporaneous letters addressed to Manutius.<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":6">{{Cite book|last=Castellani|first=Carlo|title=La stampa in Venezia dalla sua origine alla morte di Aldo Manuzio senior|publisher=F. Ongania|year=1889|isbn=978-1274832429|location=Venezia|pages=55–57}}</ref><ref name=":7">{{Cite book|last=Brown|first=Horatio F.|title=The Venetian Printing Press: an historical study based upon documents for the most part hitherto unpublished|url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924029498445|publisher=New York, G. P. Putnam's sons; London, J. C. Nimmo|year=1891|location=London & New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/cu31924029498445/page/n90 43]}}</ref><ref name=":3" /> The first erroneous plaque had been placed by Abbot don Vincenzo Zenier in 1828.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2">{{Cite book|last=Cigogna|first=Emmanuele Antonio|title=Delle inscrizioni veneziane raccolte ed illustrate|publisher=presso G. Picotti|year=1830|isbn=978-0428501563|location=Venezia|pages=41–42}}</ref><ref name=":5">{{Cite book|last=Tassini|first=dottor Giuseppe|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.aa0008583700&view=1up&seq=18&skin=2021|title=Curiosità veneziane, ovvero origini delle denominazioni stradali di Venezia, fourth edition|publisher=F. Ongania|year=1887|isbn=978-1241740559|location=Venezia|pages=10}}</ref>

Manutius lived and worked in the ''Thermae'' in order to produce published books from the Aldine Press. This was also the location of the "New Academy", where a group of Manutius' friends, associates, and editors came together to translate Greek and Latin texts.<ref name=":3" /> In 1505, Manutius married Maria, the daughter of Torresani.<ref name="Aldus and His Dream Book" /> Torresani and Manutius were already business partners, but the marriage combined the two partners' shares in the publishing business.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|last=Fletcher III|first=H. George|title=New Aldine studies: documentary essays on the life and work of Aldus Manutius|publisher=B.M. Rosenthal, Inc.|year=1988|isbn=978-0960009411|location=San Francisco, CA|pages=1–8}}</ref> After the marriage, Manutius lived at Torresani's house.<ref name=":3" /> Shrinking in popularity, in 1506 the Aldine Press was moved to Torresani's house in the parish of San Paternian. It was later demolished in 1873 and was covered by a bank building in the Venice square, ''Campo Manin''.<ref name=":3" />

==Accomplishments==
The press was started by Manutius due to a combination of his love of classics and the need for preservation of Hellenic studies. During its initial era, the press printed new copies of [[Plato]], [[Aristotle]], and other Greek and Latin classics.<ref name=":3" />

The first edition of Plato's works (known as the Aldine edition) was dedicated to [[Pope Leo X]] and included the poem of [[Marcus Musurus|Musurus]] and the life of Plato by [[Diogenes Laertius]], which were also included in the first two editions of Plato's works printed in [[Basel]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite thesis|title=An Athenian Commentary on Plato's Republic: Poetry, science and textual engagement in Proclus' In Rem.|url=https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0sn280zv|publisher=UC Berkeley|date=2013|language=en|first=David Blair|last=Pass}}</ref> The two Basel editions were introduced by a Latin preface written by the German humanist [[Simon Grynaeus]], a scholar of Greek, who dedicated the work to the humanist [[Thomas More]].<ref name=":1" />

Manutius also printed dictionaries and grammars to help people interpret the books, used by scholars wanting to learn Greek, who would employ learned Greeks in order to teach them directly.<ref name="The Printing Press as an Agent of Change">{{cite book|last1=Eisenstein|first1=Elizabeth L.|title=The Printing Press as an Agent of Change|url=https://archive.org/details/printingpressas01eise|url-access=registration|date=1979|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge, England|isbn=9780521220446}}</ref> Historian [[Elizabeth Eisenstein]] claims that the fall of [[Constantinople]] in 1453 had placed under threat the importance and survival of Greek scholarship, but that publications such as those by the Aldine Press secured it once more. [[Erasmus]] was one of the scholars learned in Greek with whom the Aldine Press partnered in order to provide accurately translated text.<ref name="The Printing Press as an Agent of Change" />{{rp|221}} The Aldine Press also expanded into modern languages, mainly Italian and French.<ref name=":3" />

[[File:Aldus Manutius LOC photo meetup 2012.jpg|thumb|left|Aldus Manutius device commemorated in the [[Library of Congress]], Washington D.C.]]

===Humanist typefaces===
Manutius eventually took on a project to improve upon the Humanistic font designs of Jenson's typefaces, hiring [[Francesco Griffo]] to design and cut typefaces for his print editions of classical literature.<ref name="The Evolution of Type" /> [[Vox-ATypI classification#Humanist|Humanistic fonts]], based on the formal hand of [[Renaissance humanism|Renaissance humanist]] scribes and notaries, had been in development from the time movable print arrived in Italy, notably by the French printer [[Nicolas Jenson]] in 1470.<ref name="The Evolution of Type" /> Griffo developed his own further refinements of style, resulting in one of the earliest [[roman typeface]]s produced.

=== Italic typeface ===
Adapting this admired and influential roman-faced font, Manutius and Griffo went on to produce a cursive variant, the first of what is now known as [[italic type]]. The word ''italic'' is derived from early Italian versions of italic faces, which were designed primarily in order to save on the cost of paper.<ref name="The Evolution of Type" /> The Aldine Press first used italic type in a woodcut of Saint Catherine of Siena in 1500.<ref>{{cite web |title=Columbia University Libraries Online Exhibitions {{!}} Type to Print: The Book & The Type Specimen Book |url=https://exhibitions.library.columbia.edu/exhibits/show/type_to_print/roman/catherine |website=exhibitions.library.columbia.edu}}</ref> Their 1501 edition of Virgil's ''Opera'' was the first book to be printed in italic type. The roman typeface and italic form created and pioneered by Manutius and Griffo were highly influential in typographic development.<ref name="The Evolution of Type" />

===Portable books (or ''libelli portatiles'')===
Beginning in 1505, Manutius produced plain texts in a portable form, using the term ''[[wikt:enchiridion|enchiridion]]'', meaning "handbook" (later misnamed "pocketbook").<ref name=":4" /> The octavo was the first version of the editio minor. Although these new, portable books were not cheap, the books of the Aldine Press did not force upon their buyers a substantial investment comparable to that of large volumes of text and commentary during this era. These books consisted on an edited text issued without commentary, printed in a typeface mimicking chancery script (the cursive handwriting of the humanist), produced in a small book which could sit comfortably in the hand.<ref name=":4" /> The editio minor, in many ways, brought financial and logistical benefits to those interested in the classics. An individual no longer had to go to the book, but rather the book came along with them.<ref name="New Aldine Studies">{{cite book|last1=Fletcher III|first1=Harry George|title=New Aldine Studies|date=1988|publisher=Bernard M. Rosenthal, Inc.|isbn=0-9600094-1-8|location=San Francisco}}</ref>

===Imprint and motto===
In 1501, Aldus used as his publisher's device the image of a [[dolphin]] wrapped around an [[anchor]].<ref name=":4">H. George Fletcher, ''In praise of Aldus Manutius'' (New York: Morgan Library, 1995), pp. 26–27.</ref> "The dolphin and anchor device owed its origins most immediately to [[Pietro Bembo]]. Aldus told Erasmus six years later that Bembo had given him a silver coin minted under the Roman [[Vespasian|Emperor Vespasian]] bearing an image of this device.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Mortimer|first1=Ruth|title=Catalogue of books and Manuscripts. Part II. Italian 16th Century Books. 2 vols.|date=1974|publisher=Belknap Press of Harvard University Press|location=Cambridge}}</ref> The image of the dolphin and anchor on the coin came with the saying "Festina Lente", meaning "make haste slowly." This would later become the motto for the Aldine Press.<ref name=":3" />

==After 1515==
Manutius died on February 6, 1515. Following his death, the firm was run by Torresani and his daughter Maria, the widow of Manutius. The name of the press was changed in 1508 to "In the House of Aldus and Andrea Torresano," and kept this name until 1529. In 1533, [[Paulus Manutius]] managed the firm, starting it up again and changing its name to "Heirs of Aldus and Andrea Torresano". In 1539, the imprint changed to "Sons of Aldo Manuzio". In 1567, [[Aldus Manutius the Younger]] (grandson of Aldus Manutius) took over and maintained the business until his death.<ref name="A Bibliographical Sketch of the Aldine Press at Venice">{{cite book|last1=Goldsmid|first1=Edmund|title=A Bibliographical Sketch of the Aldine Press at Venice: 3 Volumes|date=1887|publisher=Privately Published|location=Edinburgh}}</ref>

==Publications==
A partial list of publications from the Aldine Press, cited from ''Aldus Manutius: A Legacy More Lasting than Bronze''.<ref>{{cite book|last1=George Fletcher|first1=Scott Clemons|title=Aldus Manutius: A Legacy More Lasting than Bronze|date=2015|publisher=The Grolier Glub|location=New York}}</ref>
*''Musarum Panagyris,'' Aldus Manutius, sometime between March 1487 and March 1491.
*''Erotemata cum interpretatione Latina,'' [[Constantine Lascaris]], 8 March 1495.
*''Opusculum de Herone et Leandro, quod et in Latinam Linguam ad verbum tralatum est,'' Musaeus, before November 1495 (Greek text) and 1497–98 (Latin text).
*''Dictionarium Graecum,'' [[Johannes Crastonis|Johannes Crastonus]], December 1497.
*''Institutiones Graecae grammatices,'' Urban Valeriani, January 1497.
*''Rudimenta grammatices latinae linguae,'' Aldus Manutius, June 1501.
*''Poetae Christiani veteres'', June 1502.
*''Institutionum grammaticarum libri quatuor,'' Aldus Manutius, December 1514.
*''Suda'', February 1514.

Works published from the Greeks. Manutius printed thirty [[editio princeps|editiones principes]] of Greek texts, allowing these texts to escape the fragility of the manuscript tradition.

*''Eclogae triginta...,'' [[Theocritus]], February 1496.
*''Theophrastus de historia plantarum...,'' [[Aristotle]], 1 June 1497.
*''[[On the Mysteries of the Egyptians, Chaldeans, and Assyrians|De mysteriis Aegyptiorum, Chaldaeorum, Assyriorum...]],'' [[Iamblichus]], September 1497.
*''Aristophanis Comoediae novem,'' [[Aristophanes]], 15 July 1498.
*''Omnia opera Angeli Politiani...,'' Angeloa Ambrogini Poliziano, July 1498.
*''Herodoti libri novem quibus musarum indita sunt nomina,'' [[Herodotus]], September 1502.
*''Omnia Platonis opera,'' [[Plato]], May 1513.
*''Oratores Graeci'', May 1513.
*''Deipnosophistae,'' [[Athenaeus]], August 1514.

Latin works
*''Scriptores astronomici veteres,'' [[Julius Firmicus Maternus|Firmicus Maternus]], 17 October 1499.
*''Petri Bembi de Aetna ad Angelum Chabrielem liber,'' [[Pietro Bembo]], February 1496.
*''Diaria de Bello Carolino,'' [[Alessandro Benedetti]], 1496 (the first published work of the Aldine Press using the humanist typeface).
*''Libellus de epidemia, quam vulgo morgum Gallicum vocant,'' [[Niccolò Leoniceno]], June 1497.
*''Hypnerotomachia Poliphili,'' [[Francesco Colonna (writer)|Francesco Colonna]], December 1499.
*''Epistole devotissime de Sancta Catharina da Siena,'' [[Catherine of Siena|St. Catherina of Siena]], 19 September 1500.
*''Opera,'' Publius [[Virgil|Vergilius Maro (Virgil)]], April 1501.
*''Opera,'' [[Horace|Quintus Horatius Flaccus]] (Horace), May 1501.
*''Rhetoricorum ad C. Herennium...libri,'' [[Cicero|Marcus Tullius Cicero, (Cicero)]] March 1514.

Libelli Portatiles
*''Le cose volgari de Messer Francesco Petrarcha,'' [[Petrarch|Francesco Petrarca]] (Petrarch), July 1501.
*''Opera,'' [[Catullus]], [[Tibullus]], and [[Propertius]], January 1502.
*''Epistolae ad familiares,'' [[Cicero|Marcus Tullius Cicero]] (Cicero), April 1502.
*''Le terze rime,'' [[Dante Alighieri]], August 1502.
*''Pharsalia,'' [[Lucan|Marcus Annaeus Lucanus]] (Lucan), April 1502.
*''Tragaediae septem cum commentariis,'' [[Sophocles]], August 1502.
*''Tragoediae septendecim,'' [[Euripides]], February 1503.
*''Fastorum...libri, de tristibus..., de ponto,'' [[Ovid|Publius Ovidius Naso]] (Ovid), February 1503.
*''Florilegium diversorum epigrammatum in septem libros,'' Greek Anthology, November 1503.
*''Opera,'' [[Homer]], sometime after 31 October 1504.
*''Urania sive de stellis,'' Joannes Jovianus Pontanus, May & August 1505.
*''Vita, et Fabellae Aesopi...,'' [[Aesop]], October 1505.
*''Epistolarum libri decem,'' [[Pliny the Younger|Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus]], November 1508.
*''Commentariorum de Bello Gallico libri,'' [[Julius Caesar|Gaius Julius Caesar]], December 1513.
*''Odes,'' [[Pindar]], January 1513.
*''Sonetti et Canzoni. Triumphi,'' [[Petrarch|Francesco Petrarca]] (Petrarch), August 1514.

===Archives===
The most nearly complete collection of Aldine editions ever brought together was originally housed in the [[Althorp]] library of the [[George Spencer, 2nd Earl Spencer|2nd Earl Spencer]], and is now in the [[John Rylands Library]], [[Manchester]].<ref>A Guide to Special Collections (1999)</ref>

In North America, the most substantial Aldine holdings can be found in the Ahmanson-Murphy Aldine Collection at the [[University of California, Los Angeles]],<ref>{{cite web|title=Aldine Press|url=http://guides.library.ucla.edu/c.php?g=180922&p=1187196|website=UCLA Library|access-date=25 July 2017}}</ref> the [[Harry Ransom Center]] at [[University of Texas at Austin]],<ref>{{cite web|title=Aldine Press|url=http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/collections/books/holdings/aldine/|website=Harry Ransom Center: The University of Texas at Austin|access-date=25 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130227061649/http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/collections/books/holdings/aldine/|archive-date=27 February 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref> and the [[Harold B. Lee Library]] at [[Brigham Young University]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Aldine Checklist|url=http://exhibits.lib.byu.edu/aldine/Checklist.html|website=Exhibits of BYU Library|access-date=25 July 2017}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Barolini, Helen. [https://www.amazon.com/Aldus-Dream-Book-Helen-Barolini/dp/0934977224 ''Aldus and His Dream Book: An Illustrated Essay.''] New York: Italica Press, 1992.
* Braida, L. (2003) [https://www.amazon.com/Stampa-cultura-Biblioteca-essentiale-Laterza/dp/8842060313 ''Stampa e cultura in Europa'']. Roma-Bari: Laterza
* Davies, Martin (1995) [https://www.amazon.com/Aldus-Manutius-printer-publisher-Renaissance/dp/B009UED5CW/ ''Aldus Manutius: printer and publisher of Renaissance Venice''.] London: British Library
* Febvre, L. & Martin, H. (2001) [https://www.amazon.com/nascita-Henri-Jean-Martin-Lucien-Febvre/dp/8842026522  ''La nascita del libro''.] Roma-Bari: Laterza
* Fletcher, H. G., III (1988) [https://www.amazon.com/New-Aldine-studies-Documentary-Manutius/dp/0960009418 ''New Aldine Studies: documentary essays on the life and work of Aldus Manutius''.] San Francisco
* Lowry, Martin (1984) ''Il mondo di Aldo Manuzio – Affari e cultura della Venezia del Rinascimento''. Roma: Il Veltro, pp.&nbsp;441 (Translated from: [https://www.amazon.com/World-Aldus-Manutius-Scholarship-Renaissance/dp/0801412145 ''The World of Aldus Manutius: Business and Scholarship in Renaissance Venice''], Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1979). II edizione, con aggiornamento bibliografico, Roma 2000.
*{{cite book | author = Madden, Thomas F | url = https://www.amazon.com/Venice-History-Madden-Thomas-Hardcover/dp/B00AA8KH8M/ | title =Venice : A New History | location = New York | publisher = Viking | year = 2012 | type =  Hardback | isbn = 978-0-670-02542-8}}
*Massey, Stephen C. (2023). "Bibliotheca Brookeriana: A Renaissance Library. Magnificent Books and Bindings. The Aldine Collection." [[The Book Collector]] 74.no.4 (winter): 710–719.
*Nuovo, Angela. 2018. "Aldus Manutius and the World of Venetian Publishing." Andreas Vesalius and the "Fabrica" in the ''Age of Printing'' / Edited by Rinaldo Fernando Canalis and Massimo Ciavolella Seite 19-45.
* Renouard, A. A. (1834) ''Annales de l'imprimerie des Aldes, ou l'histoire des trois Manuce et de leurs éditions''; 3ème édition. Paris (the standard bibliography)
* Soave, Fiammetta (1991) ''Bibliotheca Aldina: a collection of one hundred publications of Aldus Pius Manutius and the Aldine Press, including some valuable Aldine conterfeits'' {{sic}}. Rome: F. Soave

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20111229155739/http://unitproj.library.ucla.edu/special/misc/aldexhibit.htm Aldus Manutius exhibition at UCLA]
* [http://www.nd.edu/~italnet/Dante/text/1502.venice.html 1502, Venice: Aldus Manutius]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20160822044055/http://www.library.manchester.ac.uk/search-resources/guide-to-special-collections/atoz/aldine-collection/ Rylands Aldine collection]
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[[Category:Italian Renaissance]]
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[[Category:1494 establishments in Europe]]
[[Category:15th-century establishments in the Republic of Venice]]
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[[Category:Companies established in the 15th century]]