ALDUS (in Italian, Aldo Pio Manuzio), the first of those justly celebrated printers, illustrious for their learning as well as for uncommon skill in their profession, who were in Italy what the Stephens afterwards became in France. He was born in 1447, at Bassiano, a small town of the duchy of Sermoneta, in the Roman state. He was educated at Rome, and, after completing his course of study, repaired to Ferrara to study Greek under Guarini, a learned professor of that language. In 1482, he quitted Ferrara, then threatened with a siege by the Venetians, and retired to Mirandola, where he was received with distinction by the all-accomplished Pico. Yielding to the entreaties of Alberto Pio, he then went to Carpi, where he was soon joined by Pico, the uncle of the prince. M. Renouard conjectures, with much apparent probability, that it was at this time that Aldus conceived the design of forming a printing establishment, with the view of multiplying the best works of the Greek and Latin authors, and that the two princes (Alberto Pio and Pico di Mirandola) undertook to defray the expense of setting up the establishment. In the course of the year 1488, he repaired to Venice, a city which, from its position, its commerce, and the literary taste of its inhabitants, appeared the best suited for his design. His first object was to make himself advantageously known, and, with this view, he commenced by giving public instructions in Greek and Latin; but in the meantime he was very busily occupied in organizing his printing-house; and at length, in 1494, he published the poem of Hero and Leander in Greek and Latin, which was followed by the Grammar of Lascaris, that of Theodore Gaza, and the works of Theocritus, Apollonius, and Herodian. But it was the publication of the works of Aristotle which placed Manutius in the first rank of printers. It is impossible to form a just conception of the patience and sagacity necessary to read and decipher the manuscripts which served as the basis of this edition, to compare and collate them with one another, to select the best readings when they exhibited variations, and to supply the omissions of the copyists. This edition alone, though less correct than the greater part of those which followed it, would be sufficient to earn for Manutius the gratitude of posterity, and to justify all the commendations which have been bestowed upon him. But if we reflect that he published, with the same care, and almost always with the same success, the greater part of the Manutius' chefs d'œuvre of Greece; that, in multiplying good books, then so rare, he changed the direction of study, hitherto limited to scholastic theology and a barbarous jurisprudence; and that he thereby contributed in the most essential manner to the progress of the human mind, and the advancement of civilization; we cannot but entertain a sentiment of profound veneration for the man whose whole life was consumed in a series of labours which will extend their useful influence even to the latest generations. Before this time the greater part of books had been printed in the folio or largest size; Manutius, however, conceived the happy idea of publishing a collection of the Latin classics in a more convenient form, and with this view he had a character cast in imitation (it is said) of the hand-writing of Petrarch, and employed it, for the first time, in the impression of his Virgil which appeared in 1501. This character, long afterwards known by the name of Aldine, and now by that of Italica, was designed and cut by Francesco di Bologna, an artist highly esteemed in his particular line. The multiplicity of works which now issued from his presses having rendered it impossible for one individual to superintend the impressions, he had recourse to the assistance of some learned men, his personal friends; and out of this association of persons united in one common object he formed the Aldine Academy, whose short duration did not prevent it from attaining great celebrity. It reckoned amongst its members, Bembo, Erasmus, Battista Egnazio, and Andrea Navagero, who every year burned, in honour of Catullus, a copy of Martial; the monk Bolzani, the first who wrote in Latin the principles of Greek grammar; Alcyonio, who is accused of having destroyed the only manuscript of Cicero's treatise De Gloria, after having transferred its finest passages to one of his own works; the Greek Musurus Demetrius Chalcondylas, who published the first edition of Homer; and Andrea, afterwards cardinal, who acted a prominent part in the ecclesiastical affairs of the sixteenth century. In 1506, war obliged Aldus to withdraw from Venice; and during his absence his goods were pillaged and his domains seized. He made repeated efforts to recover possession of his property, but, unfortunately, without success. On quitting Milan, where his friends had sheltered him, he fell into the hands of a troop of soldiers, who, taking him for a spy, conducted him to prison at Caneto. But he recovered his liberty, through the good offices of Jaffredo Carolo, vice-chancellor of the senate of Milan, and returned to Venice much poorer than when he left it. In 1507, he resumed his typographical labours; but the want of funds rendered it impossible for him to execute any great work. In these circumstances, Andrea Toresano d'Asola, his father-in-law, came to his assistance; and, in 1512, they formed a partnership, of which Aldus was constituted the head. He then re-opened his printing-house, which for two years had been shut, and resumed his labours with increased activity. But when he was on the point of publishing a Bible in three languages, which would have secured to him the distinction of being the first author of a polyglott, he was in 1515 removed from all his pursuits by death, at the age of about seventy. By his marriage with the daughter of Andrea d'Asola he had three sons and a daughter; but Paolo, his third son, was the only one who followed in the footsteps of his father.

The Greek editions which issued from the presses of Aldus are less correct than either the Latin or the Italian editions; but it should be remembered that he had frequently only a single manuscript, incomplete or half effaced, from which to reproduce a work, and that the conservation of many is entirely owing to his laborious patience. The mark of his press, it is well known, is a dolphin coiled round an anchor. Besides the prefaces, and the Greek or Latin dissertations with which he enriched most of his editions, Manutius was Manutius, the author of several works, which would of themselves have been sufficient to insure to him a distinguished place amongst the learned men of his age, if he had not been the most celebrated printer it produced. Of these works the most important are, 1. Rudimenta Grammaticae Linguae Latinae, Venice, 1501, in 4to, very rare; 2. Grammaticae Institutiones Graecae, 1515, in 4to; 3. Dictionarium Graeco-Latinum, 1497, 1524, in folio; 4. De Metris Horatianis, a little work often reprinted during the sixteenth century; 5. Scripta Trii longe rarissima demum edita et illustrata, Bassano, 1806, in 8vo. The Abbé Morelli is the editor of this collection, which contains a poem of Aldus, entitled Musarum Ponegris, in two little pieces addressed to the Prince of Carpi. The original edition in 4to, without date, must have appeared before 1489. Manutius translated from Greek to Latin the Grammar of Lascaris, the Batrachomyomachia, the Sentences of Phocylides, the Golden Verses of Pythagoras, and the Fables of Æsop and of Gabrias (Babrius). (See Life of Aldus Manutius the Elder, by Unger, augmented by Geret, Wittenberg, 1753, in 4to; also his Life by Manni.)

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 Torosano. 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 Torosano 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-impresion 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 Torosani 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 adopted 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 aedibus populi Romani), and the first work which proceeded from it was a small treatise of Cardinal Polo, De Concilio et Reformatione Anglicae, 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 Orations 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 1573, 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. Epistolae libri xii. Praefationes &c. Venice, 1580, in 8vo; 2. Lettere Volgari divise in quattro libri, ibid. 1580, 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 Comitiis 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 Orations; as well as Scholia, on the oratorical and philosophical treatises of the same author.