Aldo Manutius: Publisher, Classicist, Humanist, Christian

Aldus Manutius was born in the small hillside town of Bassiano mid-century in the province of Latina east-south-east of Rome. As a boy he went to university and attended lectures of Domizio Calderini and studied rhetoric under Gaspare da Verona there in Rome. Aldo continued as a student thru the 1460's and into the 1470's and (probably) in the latter part of that decade, moved to Ferrara to work under Battisti Guarini, where Aldo pursued the study of Greek language.

In a few years, Aldo took a position as tutor to the sons of Caterina Pio. She was the widow of Leonello, and was also the sister of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola. Aldo and Giovanni had likely met at Ferrara and subsequently had spent some time working together in 1482. Manutius himself said he spent six years in Carpi teaching the young princes Alberto and Leonello Pio until 1489. Carpi lies just north of Modena, south of Verona and due west from Ferrara, along the southern plain of the Po River in north Italy. Surrounded by several other towns and schools known for their various disciplines that qualified as education for the times, in Carpi, he also had a ringside seat for the various political upheavals and other turbulent news that swirled in those days.

In 1489 he decisively moved to Venice and, by his own later remarks we learn he had begun the process of publishing his first text in Greek by that same, or, the very next year. This work, a Greek Grammar, of Constantine Lascaris, finally appeared in March of 1495. That same year Manuzzio also began publishing a five volume edition of works of Aristotle. To accomplish this work he had also secured private investment for the second of the five vols. In a couple more years, Manuzio had branched out into publishing works from this same benefactor, Lorenzo Maioli, a Genoan who taught philosophy in Ferrara.

Formerly as a teacher, Manuzio had seen the usefulness inherent in logic and rhetoric, and especially in the original languages. Then, as a publisher, he saw the necessity of spreading the means  - a published work of grammar - as well as the widely recognised substance, the logic and dialectics, of none other than Aristotle. In those days, especially in the clerical world, but also, among the enterprising humanists, the name of Alexander's tutor still rang out.

It was the benefactor for this work of Aristotlian selections, Lorenzo Maioli, who also had asked for (and would in time receive) a work of his own to be published by the Aldine Press in July 1497. In a letter sent that spring Maioli complains of the reticence of Aldo Manuzio to publish his Epiphyllides. This benefactor says he will be even more indebted with the completion of this request,

"... even if you will think them too lacking in stylistic elegance and too carelessly expressed for them to be worthy of being printed in your type, and if you do not deem it disgraceful to publish a philospophical work that lacks the adornment of eloquence -- just because I do not at all satisfy you in this regard.

This is not a good enough reason for you to be annoyed and refuse your services to one who holds you more dear than anyone else, since our common goal frees both of us from captious criticism. For works in which the primary goal is to search for the truth should be less faulted (as Aristotle says in his Rhetorica) if they are written in a less elegant way, since we should direct our attention to the purity of their truth rather than look for the charm of a brilliant style. Not only do I think that elegance and philosophy are different in nature, they differ from each other in function." Appendix, i, 2-3; p.233

Epiphyllides in Greek are simply a bunch of grapes, or, grapeleaf or, fruit gleanings. The benefactor here sees the potential benefit in this hoped-for printed work despite its lack of style. He sees himself, the writer, and investor, as a seeker of truth and, as such, should not be faulted for such lack of elegance in style. Manuzio finishes the book and puts a preface to it as well.

This letter is just a taste of what can be found in this new 2017 Harvard collection of, yes, prefaces (with also a few letters), that Manuzio penned and printed at his famous fifteenth century printing press in Venice. This new collection published this year by the I Tatti Renaissance Library is for both  Latin and Humanistic authors. Just such a humanistic author was Lorenzo Maioli who taught in Ferrara. Last year (2016) saw the publication of a similar coillection of Aldine prefaces, but for the Greek Classics.

Manuzio in his preface went at the work of praising his benefactor in good humor. After fulsome praising he goes on to explain why to prospective students and readers.

"Since Maiolo is always engaged in carefully writing something in the liberal arts and in medicine, not just for the exercising of his mind but also and especially for your instruction, he sent me this work to be printed. The contents certainly deserve to be known but they lacked the appropriate elegance of style [elegantia minime]. At first I refused him and asked him to give the work some polish, since he could do this as well as anyone (for he is certainly most learned in Greek and Latin) and then to send it to me. But he pressed me in an amicable way, both in person and by letter, that it should be printed even just as it is, as he was under the compulsion of publishing it in order to comply with the demands of his pupils and friends. And so I finally undertook to do what he asked and I did so all the more eagerly because I had no doubts of its considerable benefit to you students."  Editions To Humanistic Authors, ii,2

More about Manuzio will be added as time allows.
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 Manuzio, Aldo: Humanism and the Latin Classics , John N. Grant ed., trans., for The I Tatti Renaissance Library (ITRI); by The President and Fellows of Harvard College, USA 2017