This article forms part of the Decorative and Applied Arts Encyclopedia, a master reference hub providing a structured overview of design history, materials, movements, and practitioners.
Aldus Manutius, the man who invented it, died almost 500 years ago, but his type is still in use. The type in which this sentence is written is called “italics.” Today, publishing a manuscript is almost instantaneous. A new bestseller can be placed on Amazon, and I can buy a copy minutes later. Looking at the books that came off the Venitian presses of Aldus Manutius is a strange experience.
Early life
Aldus Manutius was the Latin name for his Italian name Teobaldo Manucci or Aldo Manuzio born in Sermoneta, Italy. He studied in Rome and Ferrara and became proficient in Greek. He invited Greek scholars and compositors to live in his house. He employed Francesco Griffo to cut a distinctive Roman type that tended towards the cursive, known today colloquially as italic.
Despite advanced technological improvements, the product has not developed much, and the centuries have added so little to the essential craft.
New World of Scholarship
Manutius first opened up his printing press in 1490. The great works of Greek and Roman scholars, known in the monasteries and princely libraries of Europe, were scattered and often inaccurate. Yet to look at the cream-coloured pages with the beautiful printing and delicate ornaments and examine the fine bindings that hold them together is to see only half the story.
His task was to make the wisdom of the ancient world accessible to the emerging middle class of teachers, scholar-merchants, gentlemen of modest fortune, and poorer clergy through courts and cloisters. The fantastic aspect is that he did this himself.
The Texts
First, he had to find the manuscript texts, which scholars had faithfully copied over the centuries, and produce the most readable text possible.
Then, he had to find artisans to cut the type for Greek and Roman books and the scholars to edit them. The workmen set the type and make the paper and all the details that modern technology makes redundant. Despite all his care, mistakes would appear in the texts, and the ink marks and corrections are still visible in many of the texts.
Some later collectors would wash and press the pages of his manuscripts to make them look cleaner. However, modern scholars have found that the ink corrections had a purpose: Manutius methodically went through his books, copy by copy, with pen and ink to ensure they were letter-perfect.
The world was appreciative, for it was a world that was hungry for books in a way that we could not understand. When a new book came off the Aldine Press in Venice, scholars in Germany or France might get their copies within weeks, each more valuable to the reader than a hundred books nowadays.
Manutius may have also been the ‘Father’ of the pocket edition. Wealthy men earlier had scribes to produce small copies of the classics. However, Manutius made them accessible to a much wider audience.
Aldine Pocket Editions
Dante, Ovid and many other literature writers, as opposed to the works of philosophy, science and theology printed at first, were to be had in Aldine’s “pocketbooks”. These pocket editions became recognisable with the small binders’ stamps, bearing a leaf and stem design. It is a tribute to their inventor and the Renaissance printers’ commercial talents that soon after they first appeared, the books were flagrantly pirated by French printers at Lyons.
For the careful eye, the marvel lies in the deceptively simple pages of print that display the creative integrity of one man who helped form the modern world.
Additional Reading
Barker, N. (1992). Aldus Manutius and the development of Greek script & type in the Fifteenth Century. Fordham University Press. Retrieved from https://bit.ly/3FTXtzG
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