User:Mmatisse/Aldine Press

The Aldine Press was a Venetian printing and publication company founded by Aldus Manutius. The company operated from 1495-1597 and published works of Greek and Latin classics as well as contemporary Italian works. It was one of the first to use typeface as a literary tool as well as print smaller handheld editions of texts.

The Early Press
Aldus Manutius, a scholar and tutor, arrived in Venice in 1490 in hopes of establishing his own printing company. With funding from doge Marco Barbarigo's son Pier Francesco and future father-in-law Andrea Torresani, as well as backing from the princes of Carpi, Aldus was able to launch the Aldine Press.

The early years saw Aldus publishing works such as Francesco Colonna's Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, Catherine of Siena's Epistole, and a five-volume first edition of Aristotle. It was also during this time where we would see Aldus Manutius's innovations in typeface. After the company's most successful years between 1501 and 1503, Aldus began to turn his focus toward his dream of establishing an academy where he would teach ancient languages. After these efforts fell short, he returned his focus to the Aldine Press and was able to revamp production. With the help of his editorial staff, Aldus made his final years some of the busiest for the company. His final accomplishments, such as the first Greek texts of Hesychius, Pindar, and Plato, allowed him to die a literary hero.

Aldine Accomplishments
The early years of the Aldine Press saw Aldus Manutius implement new and intriguing elements to his publications. He made works that were originally large books into smaller editions that were more accessible. Inside these books, he changed the landscape of traditional page and type structure.

Libelli Portatiles
Before the Aldine press, classic literature had been confined to incredibly large and inaccessible books. Aldus Manutius wanted to print these texts in a smaller and much more accessible format. To do so, he, along with the help of Francesco Griffo would have to develop a typeface better suited for maximizing space on smaller pages. What resulted was the successful printing of these texts in the accessible size Aldus had hoped for, he called these new editions "libelli portatiles" or "portable little books."

Typeface
The Aldine Italic, or Aldino, developed by Francesco Griffo, was made famous by its use of dramatically slanted letters (meant to reflect a humanist form) to allow more words to be written on a given page, and it is suggested that this is the early form of italics we see today. It was first seen in a woodcut illustration in 1500 and was first used in-full a year later in Virgil. However, credit to Giffo was scarce and Aldus pushed to hold full ownership of Aldino as well as its replacement the Aldine Roman typeface, which was also created by Giffo. Despite his push for full ownership of Aldino, Aldus fell victim to widespread plagiarism.

Book Structure
The use of kerning in Aldine works created a more modern-looking page for the reader and its horizontal spacing invited new ways of engagement for the reader. In addition, Aldine works also featured early signs of information architecture in designating one font to the body text and another to the supplementary text elements.

Publication Post 1515
After Aldus Manutius's death in 1515, the Aldine Press was turned over to his father-in-law, Andrea Torresani and his sons Gianfranceso and Frederigo. During this time, they worked to preserve the status Aldus had established. Sixty nine Latin and thirty seven Greek editions were published between 1516 and 1529. Upon Andrea Torresani's death in 1528, Gianfrancesco and Frederigo were left with the majority of the company's stake. A lull in publication between 1529 and 1533 sparked speculations of the Aldine Press's survival. In 1533, Aldus's third son Paulus Manutius attempted to secure the family's reputation by publishing works under "the house of the heirs of Aldus Manutius of Rome, and his father-in-law Andrea of Asola." Paulus and the Torresani would mostly work independently and the original Aldine Press would be no more by 1542. However, publication would continue under Paulus. In 1561, he became the official printer of the papacy under Pius IV and was instructed to begin publishing humanist works that challenged the scholarly precedent set by the Protestants. This led to the Aldine Press's most fruitful years post-Aldus between 1562 and 1566. After a seemingly proposal by Pius V in 1566 that seemed to stray away from the original humanist assignments, Paulus lost inspiration in his work and died in 1574. His son, Aldus the Younger, would take over the company upon his father's death. Aldus faced greater challenges balancing publishing and teaching, and thus was not able to tend to the company like is father and grandfather before him. He was forced to relegate printing, and by his death in 1597, he had sold the work to The Vatican to cover his debts.

Aldine Collectors
Through centuries, the Aldine Press has remained a prominent feature in Venetian history. During the late seventeenth century, nobles began collecting Aldine works to display in their vast libraries. These sought after collections continued into the eighteenth and nineteenth century among the upper middle class. Today, Aldine collections can be seen in public libraries around the world. In the United States, a large collection can be seen in the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York City.