Aldine editions
The Aldine Press is famous in the history of typography, among other things, for the introduction of italics. Beyond the preservation of Hellenic studies, Aldus s contributions are also respected in the development of a smaller type than others in use.The press was continued after Aldus’s death in 1515 by his wife and her father until his son Paolo (1512–1574) took over. Erasmus was one of the scholars learned in Greek that the Aldine Press employed. When the press expanded to current titles, they wrote some books themselves and employed other writers, including Erasmus.
Aldine Press was the printing office started by Aldus Manutius in 1494 in Venice, from which were issued the celebrated Aldine editions of the classics of the time. While scholars wanting to learn Greek used to employ learned Greeks to teach them directly, the Aldine editions, edited by Greek scholars, allowed many scholars across Europe to study Greek.
His grandson Aldo then ran the firm until his death in 1597. Today, antique books printed by the Aldine Press in Venice are referred to as Aldines. The press was started by Aldus based on his love of classics, and at first printed new copies of Plato, Aristotle, and other Greek and Latin classics.
The press issued 127 editions during the lifetime of Aldus. He also printed dictionaries and grammars to help people interpret the books.
His contemporaries called it Aldine Type; today we call it italics. As this expansion into current languages (mainly Italian and French) and current topics continued, the press took on another role and made perhaps even more important contributions.
The press was the first to issue printed books in the small octavo size, similar to that of a modern paperback, and like that intended for portability and ease of reading. Due to the firm s commercial success many pirated editions were also produced in Lyons and elsewhere.
Their logo of the anchor and dolphin is represented today in the symbols and names used by some modern publishers such as Doubleday. The most nearly complete collection of Aldine editions ever brought together was in the Althorp library of the 2nd Earl Spencer, now in the John Rylands Library, Manchester. . Historian Elizabeth Eisenstein claimed that the fall of Constantinople in 1453 had threatened the importance and survival of Greek scholarship, but publications such as those by the Aldine Press secured it.
