Book History: A is for Aldus Manutius

This will be the first in a series about Book History.  I will intersperse these Book History entries with my other posts.  Reading and Book History is a personal interest of mine.  I started reading about book history out of curiosity, and then I wondered what would happen if I tried to write an alphabet book about book history?  I will be sharing the results of my reading and research here.  At the end of the series, I will post a bibliography of my sources.  If you are interested, read on.

Aldus Manutius was a famous printer and publisher in Venice.  What he started in the 1490s, his family continued until about 1595.  Manutius was the driving force behind several innovations in printing.  He wanted to print a complete set of Greek classics, and almost finished it—all but one of the writers he had planned to print was published before his death in 1515.  One of his largest contributions was the work of his type cutter—Griffo, who cut the first italic typeface.  Erasmus called the Aldine italic typefaces “the neatest types in the world.”  Aldus printed pocket editions of Latin classics beginning with Virgil in 1501.  Formerly, these had only been available in folio or quarto size, accompanied by copious commentary.  Aldus printed them in octavo size, which was much more portable than the larger formats, without the commentary.  This allowed the reader to experience the text without preconceived explanations or expectations.   He also printed Dante’s Divine Comedy in this style.  His print runs were large for the time (sometimes up to 3000), allowing these editions to be available to the growing numbers of literate lay people.   In 1502, he began using a printer’s device to identify his work, the dolphin and anchor, which became one of the most famous printer’s devices used in early printing.  A form of this device is now used as a logo by Doubleday Publishing. 

**Image from Wikipedia