Aldine Press
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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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. The Aldine Press is famous in the history of typography, among other things, for the introduction of italics. 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. The press issued 127 editions during the lifetime of Aldus. The press was continued after Aldus’s death in 1515 by his wife and her father until his son Paolo (1512–1574) took over. His grandson Aldo then ran the firm until his death in 1597. Due to the firm's commercial success many pirated editions were also produced in Lyons and elsewhere. Today, antique books printed by the Aldine Press in Venice are referred to as Aldines.
Selected Aldine editions
- 1495–1498 Aristotle
- 1499 Hypnerotomachia Poliphili
- 1501 Francesco Petrarca, Le cose volgari
- 1502 Dante
- 1502 Herodotus
- 1502 Sophocles
- 1503 Florilegium diversorum epigrammatum in septem libros
- 1504 and 1517 Homer
- 1513 Plato
- 1513 Pindar (editio princeps), Callimachus' Hymns, Dionysius Periegetes, Lycophron (editio princeps)
- 1514 Institutionum grammaticarum libri quatuor
- 1514 Virgil (the first of the italic type pocket octavo editions)
- 1528 Baldassare Castiglione, The Book of the Courtier (first printing)
