Aldus Manutius – Venice publisher who created the first pocket-sized books!
This afternoon I saw this post in Twitter feed – A Tribute to the Printer Aldus Manutius, and the Roots of the Paperback.. The tribute is a new show in New York at the Grolier Club in Manhattan, “Aldus Manutius: A Legacy More Lasting Than Bronze,” The show brings together nearly 150 books from Aldine press founded by Manutius in Venice in 1494. The books are known as Aldines. So who is this Aldus Manutius and what does he have to do with paperback books. I think I need to find out about this…..
At Wikipedia I read…..
Aldus Pius Manutius (1449 – February 6, 1515), the Latinised name of Aldo Manuzio [ˈaldo maˈnuttsjo] was an Italian humanist who became a printer and publisher when he founded the Aldine Press at Venice. Sometimes he is called Aldus Manutius, the Elder to distinguish him from his grandson, Aldus Manutius, the Younger.
His publishing legacy includes the distinctions of inventing italic type, establishing the modern use of the semicolon, developing the modern appearance of the comma, and introducing inexpensive books in small formats bound in vellum that were read much as modern paperbacks are……
….Manutius wanted to create an octavo book format that gentlemen of leisure could easily transport in a pocket or a satchel, the long, narrow libri portatiles of his 1503 catalogue, forerunners of the modern pocket book.[10] Manutius’ edition of Virgil’s Opera (1501) was the first octavo volume that he produced.
…In his prefatory letter to Pietro Bembo in the 1514 Virgil, Aldus recorded that he “took the small size, the pocket book formula, from your library, or rather from that of your most kind father”. Read More
Manutius’ name for his books was libelli portatiles, or portable little books.
As the leading publisher and printer of the Venetian High Renaissance Aldus Manutius not only introduced his octavos (small handy pocket additions) but he produced the first italic type. Aldus commissioned Francsco Griffo to cut the slanted italic type.He also developed several innovations in binding technique and design.. Aldus and his grandson Aldus Manutius, the Younger, also a printer are credited with introducing a standardized system of punctuation.(Damn you Aldus!)
Aldus’ typefaces were all designed and cut by Francesco Griffo, As a punchcutter Griffo created the first Roman type cut from study of classical Roman capitals. Aldus did not use his italic typeface for emphasis as we do today, however, but rather for its narrow and compact letterforms, which allowed for more economical use of space (more words per page, fewer pages, lower production costs), thus enabling the printing of pocket-sized books!
So while Pocket Books may have produced the first mass-market, pocket-sized paperback books in America in early 1939 and revolutionized the publishing industry, it was Aldus Manutius who made libelli portatiles first!