MANUTIUS, Paulus, son of the preceding, was born at Venice in 1512, and, after the death of his father, remained under the care of his maternal uncle, Andrea Torresano. Part of his early youth he passed at Asola, where his education was much neglected; but, on his return to Venice, the old friends of his father furnished him the means of gratifying his taste for learning. Under their direction he applied to his studies with such zeal and assiduity, as even to injure his health, and induce his physicians to enjoin a temporary abstinence from labour. But he suffered more domestic disquiet than from the illness thus occasioned. Andrea Torresano died in 1529; and the partition of his succession excited keen disputes between his own sons and those of Aldus. Paul, however, entered into an agreement with his uncles, whereby he remained at the head of the printing establishment, which, having been shut up in 1529, was re-opened in 1533, for the common benefit of the heirs of Aldus and Andrea d'Asola. In imitation of his father, he sought the assistance of learned men, of whose counsels he availed himself; published new editions, particularly of the Latin classics, much more correct than the preceding ones; and enriched them with prefaces, notes, and indexes, the usefulness of which now began to be felt. Being passionately fond of the works of Cicero, which he read and re-read incessantly, in order to form his own style, he published a careful re-impression of the oratorical treatises and familiar letters; and this was followed by a complete edition of the works of the prince of Roman eloquence. But fresh annoyances which he experienced on the part of his uncles forced him to suspend his labours in 1538; and he employed part of that year in visiting the ancient libraries of Tuscany and the Milanese. The partnership which he had formed with the Torresani was at length dissolved; and the printing establishment having been re-opened in 1540, under the name of the sons of Aldus, soon began to recover its ancient splendour. Manutius married in 1546; but the attention which he owed to his wife and his young family did not abate his ardour for study. Frequent illnesses, caused by excessive labour, or the difficulties with which he had to contend, could alone withdraw him from his habitual occupations. The little encouragement which he met with at Venice, however, led him to think of removing his establishment to some other place; and having been received with distinction in two journeys which he had made to Rome in 1535 and 1543, he persuaded himself that he would there find more liberal patronage and support. But every project of change was adjourned by the erection of the Venetian Academy, which was founded by the senator Badoaro in 1558, upon nearly the same plan as that afterwards adopt-
ed for the Institute of France. Paulus Manutius was appointed professor of eloquence, and director of the press of the academy. But this magnificent establishment, from which the most advantageous results were expected, was dissolved in 1561; and almost at the same time Manutius received a letter from Cardinal Scripandi, who, in the most pressing manner, invited him to establish himself at Rome, in order to superintend the impression of the works of the Fathers. After some hesitation, he accepted the offers made to him, and repaired to Rome, where he was not long after joined by his family. The new printing establishment was fixed in the capitol (in ædibus populi Romani), and the first work which proceeded from it was a small treatise of Cardinal Polo, De Concilio et Reformatione Angliæ, dated 1562. But after the death of Paul IV., the payment of the allowance granted to Manutius was discontinued. The vexation he in consequence experienced affected his health, which was already in a precarious state; and, about the end of 1570, he returned to Venice in a much worse condition than when he had left it. He went to the country in quest of that repose and diversion of which he had so much need; and, in the autumn of the year 1571, he travelled to Genoa, Reggio, and Milan, labouring at intervals on his Commentary on the Oration of Cicero. In 1572, he went to visit his daughter, whom he had left in a convent at Rome, intending to remain there only for a few weeks; but the liberality of Pope Gregory XIII. overcame all his scruples, and induced him to remain in that city. Being now easy as to the lot of his family, he was proceeding to complete the works which he had so long meditated, when the infirmity of his health forced him to abandon every kind of occupation; and, after languishing for several months, he died on the 6th April 1574, and was interred in the church of the Dominicans, but without an inscription. Although, during the last years of his life, his presses had begun to decline, Paulus Manutius, as a printer and editor, was equal to his illustrious father; and his works place him in the rank of the best critics and most polished writers of his age. These were, 1. Epistolarum libri xii. Præstationes &c. Venice, 1580, in 8vo; 2. Lettere Volgari divise in quattro libri, ibid. 1560, in 8vo; 3. Degli Elementi e di loro notabili Effetti, ibid. 1557, in 4to; 4. Antiquitatum Romanarum liber de Legibus, ibid. 1557, in folio, with an ample index; 5. Liber de Senatu Romano, ibid. 1581, in 4to; 6. De Comitibus Romanorum, Bologna, 1585, in folio; 7. De Civitate Romana, Rome, 1585, in 4to. These four last treatises have been inserted in the Thesaurus Antiquitatum Romanarum, tom. i. and ii. Manutius translated into Latin the Philippics of Demosthenes, Venice, 1549, 1552, in 4to; and he published Commentaries on the Familiar Letters of Cicero, the Letters to Atticus, Brutus, and Quintus, and the Oration; as well as Scholia, on the oratorical and philosophical treatises of the same author.