Editing Aldus Manutius (section)

==Aldine Press==
{{main article|Aldine Press}}

The [[Aldine Press]], established in 1494, had its first publication in March 1495:  ''Erotemata cum interpretatione Latina'' by [[Constantine Lascaris]]. Andrea Torresano and [[Pier Francesco Barbarigo]], nephew of the [[Doge of Venice|Doge]], [[Agostino Barbarigo]], each held fifty per cent of the press. From Torresano's fifty per cent, Manutius was given one-fifth, but accounts are unclear as to whether Manutius's one-fifth refers to ten per cent of the Aldine Press or ownership exclusively to one-fifth of Torresano's share.{{sfn|Fletcher III|1988|pp=3, 40–41}}

[[File:Aldo Manuzio Aristotele.jpg|thumb|right|260px|''Aristotle'' printed by Aldus Manutius, 1495–98 ([http://www.preliber.com Libreria antiquaria Pregliasco], [[Turin]]); shown here is the first page of the ''Posterior Analytics''|alt=a leaf from ''Aristotle'', printed by Manutius]]

The press's first great achievement was a five-volume folio edition of [[Aristotle]].{{sfn|Olin|1994|p=46}} Manutius started the first volume of his Aristotle edition in 1495. Four more volumes were published together in 1497 and 1498.{{sfn|Beltramini|Gasparotto|2016|p=295}} The Aldine Press produced nine comedies of [[Aristophanes]] in 1498, and [[Pietro Bembo]] edited [[Petrarch|Petrarch's]] poems that Manutius published in July 1501.{{sfn|Beltramini|Gasparotto|2016|p=295}} In addition to editing Greek manuscripts, Manutius corrected and improved texts originally published in [[Florence]], Rome, and [[Milan]].

The [[Second Italian War]] suspended the press for a time. During that time, [[Desiderius Erasmus]] asked Manutius to publish his translations of ''[[Hecuba (play)|Hecuba]]'' and ''[[Iphigenia in Aulis]]'' through the Aldine Press. Erasmus's original letter to Manutius inquires about the printer's proposed plans: a Greek [[Plato]] and a [[Polyglot (book)|polyglot]] bible. Through correspondence, the two came to an agreement. In December 1507, the Aldine Press published ''Iphigenia in Aulis'' in an 80-page [[octavo]] with Erasmus's translation from Greek into Latin.{{sfn|Beltramini|Gasparotto|2016|p=127}} With the success and accuracy of their first collaboration, Manutius agreed to publish the expanded version of the ''Adagiorum collectanea'' Erasmus was working on.{{sfn|Olin|1994|pp=39–44}} Erasmus travelled to Venice, where he spent his first ten months working at the Aldine Press. He lived in Manutius and Torresano's home, where he shared a room with [[Girolamo Aleandro]].{{sfn|Olin|1994|pp=46–47}} His research using Manutius's resources and Greek scholars enabled him to expand his collection of proverbs from 819 entries to 3,260 entries. The Aldine press published this newly expanded collection of proverbs, ''[[Adagia|Adagiorum Chiliades]]'', in 1508.{{sfn|Olin|1994|p=47}} After the publication of ''Adagiorum Chiliades'', Erasmus helped Manutius proofread a Greek edition of Plutarch's ''Moralia'' along with many other Aldine Press publications.{{sfn|Olin|1994|pp=47–52}}

Manutius relied on [[Marcus Musurus]], [[Ioannis Grigoropoulos]], and other Greek collaborators to translate for the Aldine Press.{{sfn|Beltramini|Gasparotto|2016|p=85}}{{sfn|Staikos|2016|pp=59–64}} He published an edition of minor Greek [[orator]]s (1508) and the lesser works of [[Plutarch]] (1509). Printing work halted again while the [[League of Cambrai]] tried to lessen Venice's influence. Manutius reappeared in 1513 with an edition of Plato that he dedicated to [[Pope Leo X]] in a preface that compares the miseries of warfare and the woes of [[Italy]] with the sublime and tranquil objects of the student's life.{{sfn|Clemons|Fletcher|2015|pp=55–70}}

With the Aldine Press's increasing popularity, people would come to visit the shop, interrupting Manutius's work. Manutius put up a sign that read, "Whoever you are, Aldus asks you again and again what it is you want from him. State your business briefly and then immediately go away."{{sfn|Clemons|Fletcher|2015|p=94}}

Manutius strove for excellence in [[typography]] and book design while publishing lower-cost editions. This was carried out under continual difficulties, including problems arising from strikes among his workmen, unauthorized use of Manutius's materials by rivals, and frequent interruptions by war.{{sfn|Symonds|1911|p=625}}

===Greek classics===
Before Manutius, there were fewer than ten Greek titles in print, most of which had to be imported from the Accursius Press of Milan.{{sfn|Lowry|1991|p=183}} Only four Italian towns were authorized to produce Greek publications: Milan, [[Venice]], [[Vicenza]], and [[Florence, Italy|Florence]], and they only published works by [[Theocritus]], [[Isocrates]], and [[Homer]].{{sfn|Symonds|1911|p=624}} Venetian printer [[Johann and Wendelin of Speyer|John Speyer]] produced Greek passages but required the minimal Greek letters to be left blank and later filled in by hand.{{sfn|Barolini|1992|pp=12–14}}

Manutius desired to "inspire and refine his readers by inundating them with Greek."{{sfn|Lowry|1991|p=177}} He originally came to Venice because of its many Greek resources; Venice held Greek manuscripts from the time of [[Constantinople]] and was home to a large cluster of Greek scholars who travelled there from [[Crete]]. Venice was also where [[Cardinal Bessarion]], in 1468, donated his large Greek manuscript collection.{{sfn|Lowry|1979|pp=72–73}} To preserve [[ancient Greek literature]], the Aldine Press commissioned a typeface based on classical Greek manuscripts so that readers could experience the original Greek text more authentically.{{sfn|Barolini|1992|pp=13–14}}

While publishing Greek manuscripts, Manutius founded the New Academy, a group of [[Hellenist]] scholars, in 1502 to promote Greek studies. Symonds writes that the New Academy's "rules were written in Greek, its members spoke Greek, their names were Hellenized, and their official titles were Greek."{{sfn|Symonds|1911|p=625}} Members of the New Academy included Desiderius Erasmus, Pietro Bembo, and [[Scipio Fortiguerra]]. M. J. C. Lowry, a lecturer in history at the University of Warwick, has a different view, regarding the New Academy as a hopeful dream rather than an organized institute.{{sfn|Lowry|1976|pp=378–420}}

Manutius spoke Greek in his household and employed thirty Greek speakers at the Aldine Press. Greek speakers from [[Crete]] prepared and proofed [[manuscript]]s and their calligraphy was a model for the casts used for Greek type. Instructions for [[typesetter]]s and [[Bookbinding|binder]]s were written in Greek, and the prefaces to Manutius's editions were also in Greek. Manutius printed editions of ''Hero and Leander'' by [[Musaeus Grammaticus]], the ''Galeomyomachia'', and the Greek ''Psalter''. He called these "Precursors of the Greek Library" because they served as guides to the Greek language.{{sfn|Symonds|1911|p=624}} Under Manutius's supervision, the Aldine Press published 75 texts by Classical Greek and Byzantine authors.{{sfn|Staikos|2016|pp=59–64}}

=== Latin and Italian classics ===
Along with Greek classics, the Aldine Press published Latin and [[Italian language|Italian]] authors.{{sfn|Symonds|1911|p=624}} Manutius launched Pietro Bembo's career as a writer by publishing ''[[De Aetna]]'' in 1496,{{sfn|Kidwell|2004|p=18}} which was the Aldine Press's first Latin publication by a contemporary author.{{sfn|Pincus|2008|p=100}} The [[Bembo (family)|Bembo family]] hired the Aldine Press to produce accurate texts of [[Dante]] and Petrarch using Bernardo Bembo's personal manuscript collection. Pietro Bembo worked with Manutius from 1501 to 1502 to provide an accurate edition of Dante and Petrarch and also introduced punctuation.{{sfn|Kidwell|2004|p=18}} Bembo later made a diagram of sins to illustrate the 1515 Aldine edition of Dante.{{sfn|Grant|2017|p=223}}

Manutius did not hold the same power of innovation over Latin classics as with Greek classics because the publication of these works started 30 years before his time. To promote the Aldine editions in Latin, Manutius promoted the quality of his publications through his prefaces.{{sfn|Grant|2017|p=xxii}} Manutius was on the lookout for rare manuscripts, but often found instead missing parts of previously published works. [[Johannes Cuspinian|Cuspinianus]] let Manutius publish the missing parts of Valerius Maximus's work, which Cuspinianus "had found in a manuscript in Vienna."{{sfn|Grant|2017|p=xxii}} Francesco Negri let Manutius publish the missing text of ''Julius Firmicus'', which Negri found in Romania, and "a manuscript from Britain made an improved edition of Prudentius possible."{{sfn|Grant|2017|p=xxii}}

The press printed first editions of [[Poliziano|Poliziano's]] collected works, [[Pietro Bembo|Pietro Bembo's]] ''Asolani'', [[Francesco Colonna (writer)|Francesco Colonna]]'s ''[[Hypnerotomachia Poliphili]]'', and Dante's ''[[Divine Comedy]]''. The 1501 publication of [[Virgil]] introduced the use of [[italic type|italic print]] and was produced in higher-than-normal print runs (1,000 rather than the usual 200 to 500 copies).{{sfn|Clemons|Fletcher|2015|p=102}}{{sfn|Angerhofer|Maxwell|Maxwell|1995|pp=5–14}}

[[File:Bembo - Gli Asolani, Aldo, 1505 (page 202 crop).jpg|thumb|left|Imprint of Aldus Manutius, in Bembo, ''Gli Asolani''|alt=A picture of a dolphin wrapped around an anchor, Manutius's imprint]]

===Imprint and motto===
Manutius adopted the image of a dolphin wrapped around an anchor as his [[Publishing|publisher's device]] in June 1502.{{sfn|Fletcher III|1995|p=7}} The dolphin-and-anchor symbol is associated with the phrase ''[[festina lente]],'' meaning "make haste slowly," indicating quickness combined with firmness in the execution of a great scheme. The symbol and phrase were taken from a Roman coin minted during Emperor [[Vespasian]]'s reign that was given to Manutius by Pietro Bembo.{{sfn|Fletcher III|1995|pp=7, 43–59}}

Manutius's editions of the classics were so highly respected that the dolphin-and-anchor device was almost immediately pirated by French and Italian publishers. Many modern organizations use the image of a dolphin wrapped around an anchor.{{sfn|Fletcher III|1988|pp=4–7}} The device has been used by the nineteenth-century London firm of [[William Pickering (publisher)|William Pickering]], and by [[Doubleday (publisher)|Doubleday]]. The international honour society for library and information science, [[Beta Phi Mu]], uses the dolphin and anchor as its insignia.{{sfn|Beta Phi Mu|2018}}

=== Enchiridia ===
Manutius described his new format of books as "libelli portatiles in formam enchiridii" ("portable small books in the form of a manual").{{sfn|Clemons|Fletcher|2015|p=97}} [[wikt:enchiridion|Enchiridion]], described in ''A Legacy More Lasting than Bronze'', also refers to a handheld weapon, a hint that Aldus intended the books in his Portable Library to be the weapons of scholars.{{sfn|Clemons|Fletcher|2015|p=97}}{{sfn|Beal|2011}} It was for these pocket-sized classics Aldus designed the italic font.<ref>Lyons, Martyn. 2011. Books: a living history. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum.</ref>

Manutius converted to the smaller format in 1501 with the publication of Virgil.{{sfn|Angerhofer|Maxwell|Maxwell|1995|p=2}} As time went on, Manutius self-advertised his portable format through the dedication pages he published.{{sfn|Grendler|1984|p=22}}

Many scholars consider the development of the portable book as Manutius's most celebrated contribution to printing and publishing. These mobile books were the first known appearance of an ''editio minor'', a straightforward text.{{sfn|Fletcher III|1988|pp=4–5}} During the 15th century, books were often chained to a reading platform to protect valuable property, requiring the reader to stay stationary.{{sfn|Fletcher III|1988|p=88}} Publishers often added commentary to their published classics. Thus, pages became overloaded with scholarship and serious material which produced a large book that was difficult to transport. The Aldine Press removed these inconveniences; Manutius's books were "published without commentary and in smaller sizes, usually octavos of five by eight or four by six inches."{{sfn|Grendler|1984|p=22}} His famous octavo editions are often regarded as the first prototype of the mass-market paperback.{{sfn|Lowry|1979|p=142}}

The octavos were moderately priced considering the known average salaries of the time, but they were not cheap. Manutius priced his Latin octavos at 30 [[Soldo|soldi]], which was a fourth of a [[ducat]]. His Greek octavos were double the price at 60 soldi. For context, a master mason would earn about 50 soldi a day to make between 50 and 100 ducats a year.{{sfn|Fletcher III|1988|pp=88–91}}

[[File:manutius.jpg|thumb|260px|A page from Francesco Colonna's ''[[Hypnerotomachia Poliphili]]'', an illustrated book printed by Aldus Manutius|alt=refer to caption]]
[[File:Virgil 1501 Aldus Manutius.jpg|The [[John Rylands Library]] copy of the Aldine Vergil of 1501, printed on [[vellum]] and hand-coloured|thumb|alt=refer to caption]]

===Typefaces===
Everyday handwriting in Venice was in [[cursive]], but at the time, printed works imitated formal manuscript hands, either [[blackletter]] or the humanistic [[Humanist minuscule|littera antica]]. Manutius commissioned typefaces designed to look like the handwriting of humanists both in Latin and Greek in order to uphold the manuscript tradition.{{sfn|Fletcher III|1988|pp=77–82}}{{sfn|Schuessler|2015}} In the ''New Aldine Studies,'' Harry George Fletcher III, [[Pierpont Morgan Library]]'s curator for printed books and bindings, writes that Manutius intended "to make available in type a face comfortable for its readers" with the cursive typeface.{{sfn|Fletcher III|1988|p=5}}

Manutius commissioned the [[punchcutter]] [[Francesco Griffo]] of [[Bologna, Italy|Bologna]] to create the new typeface. The handwriting reproduced for the many Aldine Press typefaces is a topic of conflicting opinions by scholars; Symonds (1911) suggests Petrarch's handwriting,{{sfn|Symonds|1911|p=624}} while the ''New Aldine Studies'' presumes the handwriting of scribes Pomponio Leto and Bartolomeo Sanvito was the inspiration for the typeface.{{sfn|Fletcher III|1988|p=77}} Other scholars believe the first Greek typeface was derived from the handwriting of Immanuel Rhusotas, another scribe during the time of Manutius.{{sfn|Barker|2016|p=81}} The Aldine Press commissioned the first Greek script designed "with accents and letters cast separately and combined by the compositor."{{sfn|Barker|2016|p=81}} The typeface was first used in publishing ''Erotemata'' by Constantine Lascaris in 1495. The Roman typeface was finished later the same year and Pietro Bembo's ''De Aetna'' was the first book published in the new Roman script.{{sfn|Barker|2016|pp=81–86}}

Manutius and Griffo's original typeface is the first known model of [[italic type]] and was used by Manutius until 1501.{{sfn|Fletcher III|1988|pp=2–5}} Five italic words were printed in ''St. Catherine of Siena'' in 1500, and in 1501 an ''Opera'' by Virgil was the first completed book in italic type.{{sfn|Beltramini|Gasparotto|2016|p=160}}{{sfn|Clemons|Fletcher|2015|p=90}} A falling out between Manutius and Griffo brought Griffo to leave and supply other publishers with the italic type originally commissioned by the Aldine Press. Griffo only made one set of punches for the Aldine Press, which were used until 1559. Griffo's original italic type did not include capital letters, so many of the Aldine Press publications forwent capital letters.{{sfn|Beltramini|Gasparotto|2016|pp=84–85}}

The 1502 publication of the ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' included Manutius's privilege from the Doge of Venice indicating that any use or imitation of Manutius's Greek and Italic typefaces was forbidden.{{sfn|Angerhofer|Maxwell|Maxwell|1995|p=49}} Despite trying to have the typeface protected legally, Manutius could not stop printers outside of Venice from using his work, which led to the typeface's popularity outside of Italy.{{sfn|Lyons|2011|p=78}}

===Counterfeits and piracy===
As the Aldine Press grew in popularity, Aldine counterfeits also increased. Manutius acquired privileges for his printing press from the Venetian Senate, specifically, for "his types, his pioneering octavo format, and even individual texts."{{sfn|Clemons|Fletcher|2015|p=141}} Pope Alexander VI in 1502 and Pope Julius II in 1514 granted Manutius printing privileges from the papacy.{{sfn|Clemons|Fletcher|2015|p=144}} This did not stop Aldine Press counterfeits, as there was little penalty for piracy at the time.{{sfn|Clemons|Fletcher|2015|p=146}}

Manutius attempted to discourage piracy with blunt warnings at the end of his publications, as in ''Sylvarum libri quinque'', by Publius Papinius Statius, where he warned "no one is allowed to print this without penalty."{{sfn|Clemons|Fletcher|2015|p=142}} In the Bibliothèque du Roi on 16 March 1503, Manutius tried to warn off those who plagiarized his content, "it happens that in the city of Lyon our books appeared under my name, but full of errors&nbsp;... and deceived unwary buyers due to the similarity of typography and format&nbsp;... Furthermore, the paper is of poor quality and has a heavy odour, and the typography, if you examine it closely, exudes a sort of (as one might phrase it) 'Frenchiness'." He described the counterfeit's typographical errors in detail so that readers might distinguish a real Aldine from a fake. In spite of his efforts, the Lyonese printers were quick to use Manutius's critique to improve their counterfeits.{{sfn|Clemons|Fletcher|2015|p=146}}

===Illuminated manuscripts and prefaces===
Before the printing press and during the Italian Renaissance, illuminated manuscripts were individually created by a credited artist. When print publishing became popular, woodcuts were used to mass-illuminate works. The woodcuts were often reused in several editions, thereby decreasing their value. These woodcuts soon came to Venice and were viewed as part of the "new humanist manuscript."{{sfn|Beltramini|Gasparotto|2016|pp=91–92}} The woodcut images "included aspects of both continuity and discontinuity that involved the activity of Manutius, who was called upon to wholly explicate the new potential of the printed book and deal with the crisis of the illumination."{{sfn|Beltramini|Gasparotto|2016|p=92}} Many of the Aldine Press's publications contained illumination, but Manutius let patrons decide the illumination details while he worked to translate and publish.{{sfn|Beltramini|Gasparotto|2016|p=102}}

Prefatory letters, popular in first editions of Latin works years before, were also common for Aldine editions.{{sfn|Grant|2017|p=xvii}} Manutius used the Aldine editions to ask scholarly questions and provide information for his readers. In the preface of [[Ovid]]'s ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' (1502), he argues that Heroides 17, 19, and 21 (the letters of Helen, Hero, and Cudippe, respectively) were the work of the poet [[Sabinus (Ovid)|Sabinus]], whom Ovid refers to as Amores. In another preface Manutius explains how a sundial works.{{sfn|Grant|2017|p=xxiv}}