World History Archives - Renaissance Granddad

Aldus Manutius – the Renaissance's Leading Publisher

Aldus Manutius – Venice publisher who created the first pocket-sized books! This afternoon I saw this post in Twitter feed – A Tribute to the Printer Aldus Manutius, and the Roots of the Paperback.. The tribute is a new show in New York at the Grolier Club in Manhattan, “Aldus Manutius: A Legacy More Lasting Than Bronze,” The show brings together nearly 150 books from Aldine press founded by Manutius in Venice in 1494. The books are known as Aldines. So who is this Aldus Manutius and what does he have to do with paperback books. I think I need to find out about this….. At Wikipedia I read….. Aldus Pius Manutius (1449 – February 6, 1515), the Latinised name of Aldo Manuzio [ˈaldo maˈnuttsjo] was an Italian humanist who became a printer and publisher when he founded the Aldine Press at Venice. Sometimes he is called Aldus Manutius, the Elder to distinguish him from his grandson, Aldus Manutius, the Younger. His publishing legacy includes the distinctions of inventing italic type, establishing the modern use of the semicolon, developing the modern appearance of the comma, and introducing inexpensive books in small formats bound in vellum that were read much as modern paperbacks are…… ….Manutius wanted to create an octavo book format that gentlemen of leisure could easily transport in a pocket or a satchel, the long, narrow libri portatiles of his 1503 catalogue, forerunners of the modern pocket book.[10] Manutius’ edition of Virgil’s Opera (1501) was the first octavo volume that he…

The Bookwheel , what a way to read!!

The Bookwheel invented by Agostino Ramelli in 1588! As I started browsing through Wikipedia this morning I came across a contraption invented by Italian military engineer Agostino Ramelli the bookwheel!! It was the perfect invention for all of those like us, who back in 1588 loved to read more than one book at a time! It’s just a tad bulkier than your Kindle!! Th bookwheel which is sometimes called a reading wheel is according to Wikipedia…. a type of rotating bookcase designed to allow one person to read a variety of heavy books in one location with ease. The books are rotated vertically similar to the motion of a water wheel, as opposed to rotating on a flat table surface. The design for the bookwheel originally appeared in a 16th-century illustration by Agostino Ramelli. Since then, Ramelli’s design has influenced other artists and engineers….. ….The bookwheel, in its most commonly seen form, was invented by, presented as one of the 195 designs in Le diverse et artificiose machine del Capitano Agostino Ramelli (The various and ingenious machines of Captain Agostino Ramelli).[1] To ensure that the books remained at a constant angle, Ramelli incorporated an epicyclic gearing arrangement, a complex device that had only previously been used in astronomical clocks. Ramelli’s design is unnecessarily elaborate, as he likely understood that gravity could have worked just as effectively (as it does with a Ferris wheel, invented centuries later), but the gearing system allowed him to display his mathematical prowess.[2] While other people would go…