Editing Aldus Manutius (section)

===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}}