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Manutius, Aldus

Born: Bassiano, ca. 1452

Died: Venice, 6 February 1515

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Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy

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Abstract

Aldus Manutius was perhaps the greatest humanist printer of the Italian Renaissance. After a professional start as a teacher, he undertook the publication of fine editions of the Greek classics in partnership with Andrea Torresano and Pierfrancesco Barbarigo in Venice. During his years of activity, Aldus produced more first editions in Greek than any competitor. As these texts required a significant commitment of funds and resources, the Greek texts were soon accompanied by the faster-selling Latin and Italian classics. This shift in the business came with the innovative enchiridia, Aldus’ pocketsize editions, the first series of books proper. Across his printed output, Aldus manage to make an impressive number of innovations, which in turn marked a shift in the reading experience. Many of these (for example, his innovations in the use of punctuation) have had a long-term impact and are still part of how we experience books and reading today.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK

    Shanti Graheli

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  1. Shanti Graheli
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Correspondence to Shanti Graheli .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. of Philosophy a. Cultural Heritage, Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia Dept. of Philosophy a. Cultural Heritage, Venezia, Italy

    Marco Sgarbi

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  1. Department of Philosophy, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy

    Luca Bianchi

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Graheli, S. (2021). Manutius, Aldus. In: Sgarbi, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_738-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_738-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-02848-4

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