Editing Aldine Press (section)

==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" />