The printed achievement of Aldus Manutius

Originally posted [Posting date] by the Library, All Souls College; last modified on

This symposium was convened by Ian Maclean (All Souls College, Oxford) and Oren Margolis (Somerville College, Oxford) on 7th February 2015, and comprised 5 presentations summarized here:

Aldine Greek Incunabula and early collections in Oxford College

detail of library stamp and page inscribed 'Legatum Illustrissimi viri Iosephi Scaligeri'

Geri Della Rocca de Candal (Lincoln College)

This paper, a case study based on the Material Evidence in Incunabula database (MEI), part of the 15c BOOKTRADE project, explores the provenance of Aldine Greek incunabula currently held in Oxford college libraries. Thanks to his reputation as an editor and to his highly effective entrepreneurial spirit, both decisive in creating a demand and a market for his books, Aldus's Greek editions were much sought after by humanists and scholars throughout Europe already at a very early stage.  The paper shows how, in contrast to the Greek editions of his predecessors, a remarkable number of Aldus's Greek incunabula already reached Northern Europe and England long before the European secularisation of monastic collections of the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and consequent formation of modern private collections. In addition to this, it attempts an outline of reading and collecting practices in relation to the different types of Greek works published by Manutius (e.g. devotional texts, philosophy, science, literature). Finally, the paper looks at the colleges' different pattern of acquisition during the course of the centuries.

Decoding the woodcuts of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili of 1499: Colonna ΓΕΛΟΙΑΣΤΟΣ

engraving of two women in a portico holding a boy aloft under Grecian portico with 'ΓΕΛΟΙΑΣΤΟΣ' inscribed over it

Richard Cooper (Brasenose College, Oxford)

This paper has two objectives: 1) to explore the broad significance of the Aldine Dante (1502), with its text edited by the Venetian humanist Pietro Bembo, in the context of other printed editions of the Comedy before and after 1502; and 2) to consider the particular range of interests displayed by one of the text's owners and readers, in the marginal notes by Giovanni Brevio on the Bodleian copy of the 1502 edition.

The significance of the Aldine Dante of 1502

photograph of printed page with extensive (not easily legible) marginal notes. Decorated initial N at start of second paragraph. Main text: 'COMINCIA LA COMEDIA DI dante alleghieri di firenze nella qle tracta delle pene et punicioni de uicii et demeriti et praemii delle virtu. Capitolo primo della prima parte de questo libro loqle fechsama inferno: nel quale lautore sa probemio ad tucto electato del libro: Nel mezo delcamin dinra uita miritrouai p una selua oscura che la diricta uia era smarrica Ec quanto adir qlera cola dura esta selua seluaggiaaspra eforte che nel pensier renoua la piaura. Tante amara che pocho piu morte ma pentractar del ben chio uitrouai diro dellatre cose chi uo scorve I no so ben ridir come uentrai tantera pien dissono insuquil punto che la uerace uia abandonai Ma poi chi sui apple dum colle gionto la doue terminaua quella ualle che maura dipaura el cor compuncto Guardai inalto et uidde le suoe spalle uestite gia deraggi del pianeta che menit driceto altrui per ogni calle Allor su la paura un pocho cheta coe nellaro del cor mera durata la nocte chio passai contanta pieta'

Martin McLaughlin (Magdalen College, Oxford)

This paper has two objectives: 1) to explore the broad significance of the Aldine Dante (1502), with its text edited by the Venetian humanist Pietro Bembo, in the context of other printed editions of the Comedy before and after 1502; and 2) to consider the particular range of interests displayed by one of the text's owners and readers, in the marginal notes by Giovanni Brevio on the Bodleian copy of the 1502 edition.

The Pliny of 1508: An Aldine Miscellany?

page of (half-uncial?) Latin writing. 'Glinius calusio suo salutem Nescioanullumiucundiustempus execeriosquamquonuperapudspo rinnampuiadeoquidemuineminem mascinsenectutesimodosenesce redatumestaemulariuelimnihil estenimillouitaeceneredistin ctiusimeautemutcertussiderum cursusitauitahominumdisposna delectatsenumpraesertimnam iuuenesadhuccontusaquaedam etquasitursatanonindecenise nis.placidaomniaetornatacon ueniuntqueindustriaseraturpis ambitionesthancreculamspurin naconstantissimeseruatquineti paruntaecpaua.sinioncotidietian ordinequidametuelutorbecircu acnmanelectulocontineturhors secundacalceosposenambulatom bapassuumtrianecminusanimum quamcorpusexerceisiadsuntamica honestissimisermonesexplicantur sinonliberlecturinterdumetiampras sentis.amicisspame[??]moncraiin turdeindeconsiditetliberrursus autsermolibroponor.moxuehic'

Justin Stover (All Souls College)

What was the contribution of Aldus Manutius to Latin scholarship? Aldus' importance to Latin scholarship, however, is often related as little more than footnote in the history of classical scholarship, and such a footnote could only point to one book he printed, the 1508 edition of Pliny's letters.  Remarkably, however, this single book makes two separate contributions to Latin scholarship: the first complete edition of Pliny's letters, and Aldus' only Latin editio princeps, the Liber de prodigiis of the otherwise unknown Julius Obsequens.  In this paper, I present two different ways of understanding the composition of this volume, both of which in turn shed light on Aldus' own participation in the broader scholarly world of the early sixteenth century.

The Merchant of Venice: Aldus Manutius, some publisher colleagues and the commerce of books

profile engraving, captioned 'Aldus Pius Romanus'

Ian Maclean (All Souls College)

Scholars do not engage in commerce: as the saying has it, ‘knowledge is a gift of God, and cannot therefore be put on sale.'  Merchants on the other hand are in the business of profit-making; some would say that this creates in them a ‘mercatoria prudentia' that translates everything into commercial and amoral terms. What happens if you are both a scholar and a merchant, as in the case of Aldus Manutius and his colleague Josse Bade [Jodocus Badius]?  Does your devotion to the world of learning trump your commercial sense?  Or do you combine both elements of your avocation? This paper looks at the legal and cultural aspects of this dilemma around 1500.