The Aldine Press
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The Aldine Press 1495 – 1585 Two new books about the Aldine Press of Venice, written by Adam Mills, rare books specialist in Cambridge since 1980 Aldines at Harrow Aldines at Harrow, researched and A Discursive Catalogue compiled for Harrow School, is a discursive catalogue describing the hitherto overlooked Lionel Oliver Bigg Collection of 167 Aldine books held at The Old Speech Room Gallery, Harrow School. Printing & Publishing at TheAdam AldineMills Press Printing & Publishing at The Aldine Press 1495–1585 is an extensive handbook that, uniquely, covers the complete 90-year history of the press and its activities, bringing together material otherwise scattered in many different sources. Adam Mills Published by Adam Mills Rare Books Issued in matching bindings and layout, and available to be purchased either separately or together. www.adammillsbooks.com Printing & Publishing at The Aldine Press 1495–1585 Printing & Publishing at The Aldine Press An Introductory Handbook to the Life 1495–1585 & Work of Three Generations of the Manutius & Torresani Families Introduction: Setting the Scene The Manutius & Torresani Families SETTING THE SCENE 1 The Aldine Press • Their business & family partnerships 1495 – 1585 Introduction Furthermore, Egnatio wrote, Aldus The Aldine Press is often consideredAdam one of the most Millslived with the highest reputation among all men for honesty • Their lives & achievements in Venice & Rome important presses in the history of publishing. Aldus and scholarship ... Indeed, it is known that many important Manutius, who founded the press in Venice in 1495, was men came to Venice just to greet and see this man, and also the first to succeed in resolving the apparently intractable to shower him with gifts. Such an admirable city did not itself problems of Greek typography. The string of Editiones draw these men to admire it, but the fame of one man led Principes (earliest printed editions) of the ancient Greek them here, a man who rallied men to the best of his ability writers, printed in the original Greek and issued by so that he might be able to pursue his program of restoring • Their principal published books Aldus, laid the foundations for the study of Greek the Latin and Greek language (Angerhofer et al, In throughout Renaissance Europe. These major editions Aedibus Aldi ). in Greek, in tandem with the many significant editions of the Latin classics issued by Aldus and by his successors, The Aldine Press rapidly established the Aldine Press as a dominant force in late 15th and early 16th century printing. In a short 20-year publishing career, Aldus M anutius c.1451–1515, the first and m ost celebrated scholar- In October 1507, Erasmus, the Prince of H umanists, printer of the R enaissance, succeeded in transform ing wrote to Aldus, then at the height of his career. the face of learning across Europe. By the tim e of his Editing, Type Design & Printing at the Aldine Press I have often privately wished, most learned Manuzio, that death, he had established the Aldine Press, with its literature in both Latin and Greek had brought as much distinctive dolphin-&-anchor device, as the most famous profit to you as you for your part have conferred lustre upon and influential Renaissance printing house in the whole it, not only by your skill, and by your type, which is of Europe, its publications uniting a web of leading unmatched for elegance, but also by your intellectual gifts humanist scholars that spanned out from Italy to take in and uncommonThe scholarship; Life since so far& as fame Work is concerned, Germany,of Aldus Austria, Poland andManutius Hungary, France, The • Aldine editing practices it is quite certain that for all ages to come the name of Aldo Netherlands, Spain and England. Manuzio will be on the lips of every person who is initiated EditoriallyI the Aldine texts were not only a byword as into the rites of letters (Mynors & Thom son, Corres - the most accurate and authoritative to date, but were pondence of Erasmus). printed in the m ost innovative and typographically Aldus had established an unshakeable position as the pre- fashionable and stylish manner. eminentIntroductory Renaissance publisherSu of classical c.1451texts. H is –The 1515 Aldine Greek types had proved the first comm er- • Development of the Aldine typefaces reputation was based not only on the series of Greek cially and aesthetically successful solution to the AEditionesldus as PrincipesScholar,that Pr issued from the Aldine Press, but problems of cutting Greek letters. The Aldine Italic, the 1495also on his m any major typographicalmmary innovations that first of its kind, and astonishing to contem poraries, was both– enabled his program me, and gave it a highly From 14951515 the life of Aldus as a scholar, editor, printer, an entirely new form for metal types. The two new admired and distinctiveinter visual & identity. Publ Among these Aldine Romans marked an advance on the earlier roman and publisherradical innovations, was intense, Aldus’sinnovative, introduction and highly to pro the - printing ductive. lines,types to aidof Jensonaccurate and and remain thorough widely indexing used andtoday. cross- industry of the pocket-book format forisher the classics, the • Evolution & processes of the printed book reference;Aldus’s and innovative from the pocket-book development editions,of the curved as the most DespiteLibelli the pressures Portatiles of, hiswould new free profession books asfrom a printer the confines of and publisher, Aldus also maintained his personal educat - comma,sought-after to its further books development of the age, into also the proved, semi-colon. to Aldus’s cost, the library or study, and thus change the manner in In addition, Aldus also revived the use of introductory ional and whichhumanist literature scholarly could interests, be read. publishing several to be those most subject to piracy from ruthless French editions of his own Latin grammar, as well as preparing pre facesand that Italian served com bothpetitors. to flatter his influential ded - an edition ofWith his Greeka target grammar, audience and that also included appending the to intellectual eliteicatees, and to extol the superior qualities of his editions. his Aldine editionsof Renaissance his own learnedhum anists, treatises, Aldus such and as thehis Aldine Press Orthographia rapidly becam e a hub for international scholarship. InTexts Aldine Editions extensive study1515, of Horatian immediately metrics following of 1509. the death of Aldus, his Interruptionsclose The – thefirst result to effectively of wars, financialmaster the crises, technical and intricacies of of 1502, his Other Aspects of the Aldine Press Within the press,friend Aldus and held CHAPTEReditorial creative colleague control XXIII of Egnatio both| THE the asserted USE OF that TH‘theretradingE ALDIN difficultiesprintingE DEVIC – costin G AldusESreek, |four 177Aldus years becam of work,e theand pre-eminent publishing programme,is no nation and inofLife Europe,typographic of Ovid no matter design. how The uncultured or remote,divided to his twenty-yearprinter-publisher publishing of a seriescareer ofinto m severalajor Greek texts, dominance of hiswhom role was the reflectedname of Aldus in the alsois name not 1502, well given knownand his and famous’discrete periods.grammars and dictionaries that would enable the study to the undertaking,(Grant, the Aldine Aldus Press. Manutius). appeared in the Pedianus of 1553,of Greek and the throughout Ragazzoni R ofenaissance Europe. Financially, however, Aldus remained permanently by1555, far which both carried colophons attributing the the minor partner. The experienced Venetian printereditions to Paulus alone. These read respectively Apud • The Aldine Academy • Aldus’s European Contacts Andrea Torresani, who may have directed the everydayPaulum M anutium, Aldi Filium , and Apud Paulum technicalities of printing and was later to become Aldus’sManutium, Aldi F. ix father-in-law, was one of two major financial stakehold-Finally, the device also appears on two editions issued in ers. Pierfrancesco Barbarigo, the nephew and son of 1559, the first with an imprint attributing the edition to two Doges of Venice, a silent partner who died in 1499, Paulus alone, and the second a reissue of the original was the other. Alberto Pio, the Prince of Carpi, Aldus’s 1552 Aldine edition of three speeches by Parisetti that former pupil, also played a detached but major role as a retained the old colophon wording Apud Aldi Filios. By • The patron and guarantor. this late date Paulus’s de facto role as sole manager of the L Innovat press had already been clearly acknowledged. (See also ibelli Portat i Devices A12, A16a & A19.) ons Aldus introducedin many Texts, innovations Ed to the world of printing and publishing. These ranged from his choice Device B2a – used 1554 of texts, both ancient Greek in theiti ng,Typeoriginal Greek, & For and A copy of B2 but with the words Aldus Filii replaced • Aldine Special Copies • Privileges & Printed Cautions contemporary works in Latin or the vernacular; to new with the single word Aldus divided by the shank. The iles standards of editing applied to these texts; from his m device was used just once by Federico Torresani in 1554 important new typefaces, Greek,Device Roman, B2 and the unique at Aldine Italic; to the new pocket-book format introduced (in conjunction with device A13), together with the for the colophon Appresso il nobile huomo M. Federico Torresano. • The of printingThisLibelli deviceparallel Portatiles wasor interleaved used on at texts; least to60 the editions introduc- between tion of1546 printed and numbering 1556, mainly for pages,with theand colophon on occasion Apud Aldi B3 : The Second Large Wreath Device • Jean Grolier c.1489–1565 • Cicero in the Renaissance series in 1501; from new forms Hypnerotomachia Poliph Filios, or its Italian equivalent. Device B3 – used 1554 –1566; & 1570 The Letters of Pietro Bembo, issued 1550–1551, carried This is, like B1, a large oval device, but w ith a thick For this chapter,this samesee particularly Aldine deviceAngerhofer on its final leaf, but had the wreath that is now richly decorated with fruits.