1449-1515
Scholar, Editor, Printer

Beginnings. The founder of the famed Venetian Aldine Press, Aldus Manutius was born in the village of Bassiano near Rome in 1449. Little is known of his early life, but records from the archives of the Roman princely family of Caetani, lords of Bassiano and the surrounding duchy of Sermoneta, suggest that the young Manutius probably came from a family of some means with sufficient connections to princely and clerical elite. He studied in Rome, where he was trained in the Latin classics by the renowned humanist, Gaspare da Verona, and probably attended the lectures given by another famous scholar from Verona, Domizio Calderini.

Sojourn in Ferrara. A promising scholar and philologist, Manutius was drafted into papal chancery, enjoyed a brief career as a university lecturer, and in 1472 entered the service of the antiquarian and collector, Cardinal Bessarion. In the mid 1470s, Manutius...