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…
