VALÉORINE London

Aldus Manutius

Italian · Venice · 1449–1515

Aldus Manutius was a Venetian printer and publisher who established the Aldine Press in Venice in 1494 and, over the two decades that followed, changed the physical form of the European book. He is associated with the small-format octavo edition intended to be carried and read rather than consulted at a lectern, with the first sustained programme of printing Greek classical texts, and with the italic types cut for him by Francesco Griffo. His editions are identified by the device of the dolphin and anchor. The press continued after his death under his family, and the term Aldine is still used of its books.

Also recorded as Aldo Manuzio; Aldus Pius Manutius; Alde l'Ancien; Aldus Manutius the Elder.

Overview

The Aldine Press issued the first printed editions of a large part of the Greek canon, and its octavo series established a format and a typographic manner that printers across Europe imitated. VALÉORINE holds this record because Aldine editions occur regularly in the printed record and because their identification depends on details of format, device and type rather than on title alone.

In detail

Venetian printer and publisher, founder of the Aldine Press.

Chronology

  1. 1449Born at Bassiano, in the Papal States.
  2. 1494Establishes the Aldine Press at Venice.
  3. 1499Prints the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili.
  4. 1501Issues the first octavo editions in italic type.
  5. 1515Dies at Venice.

Connections

Each connection was recorded deliberately, with the basis for it kept on the internal record.

Associated with

Sources

Each source is named with the standing the house places on it, so the evidence can be weighed rather than taken on trust.

  • Library record · Institutional or primary · British Library

    Incunabula Short Title Catalogue (ISTC), British Library, records of the Aldine Press, Venice

    Consult the source

  • Academic publication · Scholarly

    Lowry, Martin. The World of Aldus Manutius: Business and Scholarship in Renaissance Venice. Oxford: Blackwell, 1979.

    Consult the source