Aldus Manutius at UCLA: An Exhibition in honor of the publication of The Aldine Press: Catalogue of the Ahmanson-Murphy Collection

UCLA Library Department of Special Collections
Exhibits

Aldus Manutius at UCLA

An Exhibition in honor of the publication of
The Aldine Press: Catalogue of the Ahmanson-Murphy Collection

Exhibit organized by Daniel J. Slive and Paul Naiditch
October 2001

The collection of the publications of Aldus Manutius, his family, and imitators began in earnest at UCLA in the early 1960s during the tenure of Chancellor Franklin D. Murphy. For three decades, Dr. Murphy fostered the expansion of the Aldine collection and encouraged its growth. With the constant support of the Ahmanson Foundation, this collection has become the foremost repository for Aldines in the Western Hemisphere. Spanning the output of the entire Manutius family of printers from 1495 to 1598, the collection holds approximately 90 percent of the books printed by the elder Aldus and his heirs as well as 80 percent of the works printed by Paulus Manutius and Aldus Manutius the Younger.

The Ahmanson Foundation has likewise generously supported the publication of The Aldine Press: Catalogue of the Ahmanson-Murphy Collection. This descriptive bibliography documents books held by the Department of Special Collections by or relating to the press, as well as works recorded elsewhere. Extensive physical descriptions, content notes, and studies of typefaces, printers’ devices, and watermarks ensure that the catalogue will be a major resource for Aldine studies.

The present exhibition focuses on Aldus Manutius and books published by the press during his lifetime. These editions represent his work as a teacher, scholar, printer, and publisher. As his place in the history of printing and culture is closely linked with both monumental Greek folios and portable octavo classics, these two types of texts and formats are emphasized in this display.

On Exhibit

Aldus Manutius, the younger. Epitome orthographiae. Venice: Aldus Manutius, the younger, 1575.

This portrait of Aldus appears on the title page of an edition of a grammatical work written and published by his grandson. Produced six decades after his death, this is one of only a few known images of Aldus the Elder, and the closest we have to an official portrait.

Aristotle. [Opera.] Venice: Aldus Manutius, 1495-1498.

A major achievement of the Italian Renaissance was the recovery and dissemination of classical works, especially in their original languages. Aldus’s editio princeps of Aristotle is the first major Greek prose printed in its original language. Published in five folio volumes, the work is a striking symbol of the reintroduction of the classics into European thought and culture. The earliest of the Aldine Greek folios, these extraordinary volumes heralded the scholarly and typographic standards the Aldine Press would achieve over many decades.

Plato. Omnia Platonis opera. Venice: House of Aldus and of Andrea of Asola, his father-in-law, 1513.

This first edition of Plato’s complete works was edited by Marcus Musurus, one of Aldus’s principal editors of Greek texts. A monumental work, it is comparable in importance to the five-volume edition of Aristotle published by Aldus at the beginning of his career. The last of Aldus’s editiones principes, it is one of his most significant Greek editions.

The present set belonged to Dr. John Clement, physician and Greek scholar, friend of Thomas More and husband of his ward Margaret Giggs. It was given to Clement by his daughter Dorothy. More included Clement among those present when "Utopia" was described in the work of the same name.

UCLA Library’s two millionth volume, presented by Mrs. Elmer Belt, Edward W. Carter, W. Thomas Davis, Majl Ewing, Mrs. Edward H. Heller, Robert Moes, Franklin D. Murphy, Norton Simon, Robert Vosper, and other friends.

Aldus Manutius. Institutionum grammaticarum libri quatuor. Venice: House of Aldus and of Andrea of Asola, his father-in law, 1514.

Aldus’s Latin grammar was a popular title for the press during the author’s lifetime and beyond. Aldus published editions, under various titles, in 1501, 1508, and 1514 and ten additional editions were printed between 1515 and 1576. Issued in quarto, a format Aldus reserved for school texts, it includes Aldus’s letters advising teachers of literature, scholars, and students.

The Portable Library

Aldus’s greatest innovation as a publisher was his popularizing of portable hand-held books, a phenomenon similar to the paperback revolution of the last half century. This series of books was to be focused on "the classics" in Greek, Latin, and, selectively, in Italian. In the 1995 exhibition catalogue In Praise of Aldus Manutius, H. George Fletcher notes Aldus’s three simultaneous achievements in publishing books in this format: "(1) an edited text issued without commentary, (2) printed in a novel typeface [i.e.: italic] that mimicked chancery script, the humanist’s cursive handwriting, (3) produced in a light, small book of elongated format that would sit comfortably in the hand."

Aldus launched his "portable library" of Greek and Latin classics in 1501 with the publication of Publius Vergilius Maro’s Opera, the first book printed in Italic type. The handy size of these volumes allowed readers to carry their books with them, making texts more accessible. This change in format also overturned the standard of publishing learned works only in large folio volumes. For many generations of bibliophiles, the portable octavo is the quintessential Aldine that first comes to mind when the press is mentioned.

Sophocles. Tragoediae. Venice: Aldus Manutius, 1502.

This editio princeps of Sophocles was the first Greek classical text issued in the portable format, set in the fourth of Aldus’s Greek fonts. As with earlier Aldine Greek editions, the type was complex and expensive, and its small size increased the difficulty of setting the text. Thus, the Sophocles was originally priced twice as much as Latin texts in the same format.

Francesco Petrarca. Le cose volgari. Venice: Aldus Manutius, 1501.

This is the first book in the vernacular to be printed in Aldus’s new italic type, three months after its initial appearance in Vergil’s Opera. This edition, edited by Pietro Bembo, is also the first appearance of Petrarch in this small hand-held format.

Florilegium diversorum epigrammatum in septem libros. Venice: Aldus Manutius, 1503.

The first Aldine edition of the Greek Anthology compiled by Maximus Planudes (c. 1255 - 1305) was edited by Aldus himself. It is based on the 1494 editio princeps edited by Janus Lascaris. Planudes’s anthology was the only known collection of classical Greek epigrams until the early seventeenth century.

This copy belonged to the great sixteenth-century book collector Jean Grolier. The two armorial medallions on the first text page were painted for him, probably in Milan during the years 1509 - 1510. It is one of ten recorded examples of his books decorated with the motto Aeque difficulter. In addition to owning over two hundred Aldine publications, Grolier was closely involved with Aldus and the press. He sponsored a number of editions and later served as the Parisian representative of the firm.

Purchased with funds donated by Lloyd E. Cotsen and the Cotsen Family Foundation in memory of Dr. Franklin D. Murphy.

Publius Vergilius Maro. Opera. Venice: House of Aldus and of Andrea of Asola, his father-in-law, 1514.

Aldus was the first European printer to issue books printed on blue paper. This phenomenon was perhaps inspired by Turkish fashion, a possibility considering Venetian trade routes and Eastern influences on Venetian culture. Beginning with Aldus, blue paper was used to produce an exceptional copy of a work that could be given as a presentation copy or purchased by collectors. In this manner, it can be considered a cheaper alternative to using vellum for deluxe editions. The paper used in this edition of Vergil is from the same stock Aldus used for his first book on blue paper, the 1514 De re rustica. Here, the initial letters are painted gold on a black background with silver floral arabesque decoration.

Counterfeits: The Sincerest form of flattery?

Martial. Martialis. [Lyon: Barthélemy Trot?, 1502].

In attempting to reproduce Aldus’s text faithfully, the printer of this unauthorized edition of Martial included the publisher’s original warning against counterfeiters: WHOEVER YOU ARE, WHATEVER WAY YOU MISUSE THIS EDITION WILL CAUSE YOUR CONDEMNATION AS A CRIMINAL BY THE ILLUSTRIOUS VENETIAN SENATE. DON’T SAY YOU HAVEN’T BEEN WARNED. WATCH OUT! Apparently, the only page not copied was Aldus’s colophon of December 1501.

Francesco Petrarca. Le cose volgari. [Lyon: Barthélemy Trot, ca. 1502].

Aldus’s portable books included works in the vernacular by Dante and Petrarch and both were copied by counterfeit printers in Lyon. This first edition of this piracy is based on the Aldine edition of July 1501, also on display.

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