Manutius

Aldus Manutius
Aldus Pius Manutius
Born	Aldo Manuzio Fifteenth century
Died	1515
Nationality	Venetian
Other names	Aldus Manutius the Elder
Occupation	humanist who became a printer and publisher
Known for	founding the Aldine Press at Venice

Aldus Pius Manutius also known as Aldo Manuzio (Italian: Aldo Pio Manuzio; ca. 1452 – February 6, 1515) was a Venetian humanist, scholar, educator, who became a printer and publisher when he helped found the Aldine Press in Venice, 1495. He is also known as "Aldus Manutius the Elder" to distinguish him from his grandson, "Aldus Manutius the Younger".

Manutius "attempted to make classical Greek works accessible which before him had never been published in their original language". His publishing legacy includes the distinctions of inventing the first italic type, establishing the modern use of the semicolon, developing the modern appearance of the comma, and popularizing the libelli portatiles, or portable little (specifically) classic books: small-format volumes that could be easily carried and read anywhere..

Manutius was born in Bassiano, in the Papal States, in what is now the province of Latina, some 100 km south of Rome, during the Italian Renaissance period. His family was well off and in the early 1470s Manutius was sent to Rome to be educated as a humanistic scholar, studying Latin under Gaspare da Verona and attending lectures by Domizio Calderini. In 1475-1478 he studied Greek in Ferrara, under Guarino da Verona.

Manutius was granted citizenship of the town Carpi in March of 1480. In 1482 he went to reside at Mirandola with his old friend and fellow student, the illustrious Giovanni Pico, while avoiding the Venetian army. There he stayed two years, pursuing his studies in Greek literature. Before Pico moved to Florence, he procured for Manutius the post of tutor to his nephews, Alberto and Leonello Pio, princes of the town of Carpi. In Carpi, Manutius shared a close bond with his student, Alberto Pio. At the end of the 1480s Manutius published two works addressed to his two pupils and their mother, Caterina Pico. Both works were published by Baptista de Tortis in Venice — Musarum panagyris with its Epistola Catherinae Piae, March/May 1487 - March 1491 and the Paraenesis, 1490. This would serve as Manutius's emergence into the publishing sphere.