
Marbled endpaper from a 16th century Aldine.
Revolutionizing Renaissance printing: Aldus Manutius
A pioneering figure in the Italian Renaissance, Aldus (1452-1515) was an editor, printer and publisher. In addition to new typefaces, one of his significant innovations was to publish editions of Greek and Latin classics in pocket-sized books called octavos. Making these works more portable and accessible to scholars and the reading public revolutionized printing and reading in the Renaissance.
“Even 500 years later, so many of the things that Aldus established are still the model of publishing practice today, really setting the modern world in motion,” explained John Maxwell, associate professor and director of SFU Publishing.
Other new Aldine acquisitions: Virgil, Plutarch, Petrarch, and a counterfeit Aldine
In addition to the letters of St. Catherine, recent acquisitions to our collection include later publications from Aldus’ press, such as a second edition of Virgil’s poetry from 1514 and a first edition of Plutarch’s Parallel Lives from 1519.
Another new arrival is one of Aldus’ earliest octavos, a first edition of Petrarch’s writings from 1501, which includes more of Francesco Griffo’s innovative italic type. Accompanying it is an infamous counterfeit edition, published by a French printer in Lyon in 1502. This exciting chance to have both the Aldine edition of Petrarch and the illicitly printed Lyon edition together opens up possibilities to compare the works, and to explore questions about the competitive book market and publishing trends in the Renaissance.
An expansive and engaging virtual collection
Making the collection even more accessible, more than 20 works from the Aldine collection have been fully digitized and shared in the Aldus@SFU digital collection, where they are freely available online.
“Aldus gained international success as a publisher, but he remained an educator at heart,” said Bordini. “We might say that he believed in the idea that knowledge is a common good that deserves to be shared. Carrying forward his lesson by making the SFU Aldine collection more widely available to the public, we want to ensure that our cultural heritage is not only preserved but also continuously infused with new life through ongoing engagement.”
Consistently one of the three most accessed of all of SFU Library’s digitized collections, these remarkable works continue to interest and engage researchers and book lovers from around the world.
Melissa Salrin, Head of Special Collections, shows the Aldine collection to students (pre-COVID).
References
Luongo, F. T. (2017). Catherine of Siena. Renaissance and Reformation. Oxford Bibliographies Online.