Aldus Manutius
The printer who revived Greek classics and invented the portable book.
Rota, Martinus Sibenicensis (1520?-1583). Graveur · via Wikipedia: Aldus Manutius · Public domain
Personal reading was transformed by Manutius's creation of small, portable books called enchiridia, which served as the forerunner to today's paperback.[1] Standardization of punctuation marks like the comma and semicolon was advanced by Manutius.[1][2]
Quick Facts
- Birth name
- Aldo Manuzio
- Born
- c. 1449/1452
- Birthplace
- Bassiano, Papal States
- Died
- 6 February 1515
- Place of death
- Venice, Republic of Venice
- Other names
- Aldus Manutius the Elder
- Occupation
- Renaissance humanist
- printer
- publisher
- Known for
- Founding the Aldine Press at Venice; Founding the New Academy
Facts from the source article.
Life and work
Aldus Manutius was born near Rome in Bassiano between 1449 and 1452.[3] He studied Latin in Rome and Greek in Ferrara with Battista Guarino from 1475 to 1478.[4] Manutius settled in Venice in 1490, where he met Andrea Torresano, who became his lifelong business partner.[5][4] The Aldine Press was established in 1494 and published its first work in March 1495.[4]
He adopted the dolphin-and-anchor device as his publisher's mark in June 1502.[6] He died on 6 February 1515.[1][7] In 1505, Manutius wed Maria, who was the daughter of Andrea Torresani of Asola, and this union merged their respective business holdings.[8]
What the cited sources add
The Smithsonian Magazine account states that Manutius opened his own publishing house, the Aldine Press.[2] It notes that he challenged received doctrine and sometimes pressed the limits of what the Roman Catholic Church would accept.[2] The same source reports that his techniques were quickly copied across Italy and later around Europe, with little credit given to him.[2] The magazine also mentions that the software company Aldus Corporation, named in his honor, introduced the PageMaker program in 1985.[2]
References
- Wikipedia, "Aldus Manutius" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Magazine, "The Man Who Changed Reading Forever", Smithsonian Magazine (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Magazine, "The Man Who Changed Reading Forever", Smithsonian Magazine. facts only, no text reused. smithsonianmag.com
- Wikipedia, "Aldus Manutius" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Barolini 1992, p. 1; Fletcher III 1988, p. 1; Seddon 2015, p. 22 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Aldus Manutius" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Fletcher III 1988, p. 1 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Aldus Manutius" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Symonds 1911, p. 624; Pignatti, "Torresano, Andrea", Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana, 2019 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Aldus Manutius" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Fletcher III 1995, p. 7 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Aldus Manutius" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Beltramini Gasparotto 2016, p. 157; Blumenthal 1973, p. 11 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Aldus Manutius" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Barolini 1992, p. 1 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Aldus Manutius (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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