- Manutius, Aldus, the Elder
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Italian Aldo Manuzio il Vecchioborn 1449, Bassiano, Papal Statesdied Feb. 6, 1515, VeniceItalian printer, the leading figure of his time in printing, publishing, and typography.In 1490 he settled in Venice and gathered around him a group of compositors and Greek scholars. He produced the first printed editions of many Greek and Latin classics and is particularly associated with the production of small, carefully edited pocket-size books printed in inexpensive editions. The Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (1499) of Francesco Colonna, with outstanding woodcuts, was his most famous book. After his death, the Aldine Press, which he founded, was taken over by members of his family, who probably printed 1,000 editions between 1495 and 1595.
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▪ Italian printerItalian Aldo Manuzio il Vecchio , original name Teobaldo Manucci , also called Aldo Manuzioborn 1449, Bassiano, Papal States [Italy]died Feb. 6, 1515, Venicethe leading figure of his time in printing, publishing, and typography, founder of a veritable dynasty of great printer-publishers, and organizer of the famous Aldine Press. Manutius produced the first printed editions of many of the Greek and Latin classics and is particularly associated with the production of small, excellently edited pocket-size books printed in inexpensive editions.After studies in Rome and Ferrara, Manutius reached Venice in 1490 and gathered around him a group of Greek scholars and compositors. In March 1495 he issued his first dated book, the Erotemata of Constantine Lascaris (Lascaris, Constantine). During 1495–98 he printed five volumes of Aristotle; in 1495, the Idylls of Theocritus and De Aetna of Pietro Bembo (Bembo, Pietro); and in 1498, works by Aristophanes and Politian. Francesco Griffo, who was his type cutter, was responsible in 1500 for the first italic typeface, first used in the Virgil of 1501. The Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (1499) of Francesco Colonna, with its outstanding woodcuts by an unknown artist, was Manutius's most famous book. In 1501 he printed Juvenal, Martial, and Petrarch's Cose volgari; in 1502, works by Gaius Valerius Catullus (Catullus, Gaius Valerius), Lucan, Thucydides, Sophocles, and Herodotus; and in August 1502, La divina commedia of Dante, which first showed the famous colophon of the Aldine anchor and dolphin. In the Sophocles of 1502 occurred the first mention of the Aldine academy, an organization of scholars founded by Manutius to edit classical texts. Between 1503 and 1514 his production included works by Xenophon, Euripides, Homer, Aesop, Virgil, Desiderius Erasmus (Erasmus, Desiderius), Horace, Pindar, and Plato.Manutius married in 1505, and thereafter the name of his father-in-law, Andrea Torresani di Asola, appeared regularly with his in imprints. After Manutius's death his brothers-in-law, the Asolani, carried on the Aldine Press until 1533, when his third son, Paulus Manutius (Manutius, Paulus), took over. Paulus went to Rome in 1561, leaving the Aldine Press to his son Aldus Manutius the Younger (Manutius, Aldus, the Younger). It is probable that the Aldine family printed 1,000 editions between 1495 and 1595.Additional ReadingMartin Davies, Aldus Manutius: Printer and Publisher of Renaissance Venice (1995); and H. George Fletcher, New Aldine Studies: Documentary Essays on the Life and Work of Aldus Manutius (1988), are biographical discussions. Martin Lowry, The World of Aldus Manutius: Business and Scholarship in Renaissance Venice (1979), examines the intellectual and commercial climate that contributed to Venice's early establishment as a European centre of printing.* * *
Universalium. 2010.
