1582 ALDINE PRESS CICERO BY ALDUS PIUS MANUTIUS ANTIQUE VELLUM 16TH CENTURY

1582 ALDINE PRESS CICERO BY ALDUS PIUS MANUTIUS ANTIQUE VELLUM 16TH CENTURY

DEL EPISTOLE di CICERONE

CICERONIS

Scielte de Aldo Mannucci

(Quotes from Cicero's Epistles selected by Aldo Mannucci.)

Venice, [Aldo Manutius the Younger], 1582

On leaf a2 dedication by Aldo Manuzio, dated 1 August 1575, to Claudio Pozzo.

Rare edition .

Refined dictionary of style with expressions, formulas and sayings taken from the letters of Cicero.

Important work of the young Aldus Manutius, 1547-1597, editor, printer and scholar, son of Paolo and nephew of the more famous Aldus Manutius the Elder.

These 'Locutions' chosen by the young and extremely erudite Aldus Manutius, are proposed in Italian and Latin: they will be, as the subtitle indicates, "very useful for composing in both languages."

They also contain substantial Indexes, in Italian and Latin, to find the expressions contained in the book.

Russo: “… the volume on the Locutions of Cicero's Epistles … in which the care that M., following in his father's footsteps, had dedicated for years to Cicero's epistolary flowed together and was reused in a manualistic manner (a similar volume starting from the works of Terence would appear in 1585)” Renouard notes that in this work the young Aldo adopted the new signature 'Aldo Mannucci' to suggest a kinship between his family and that of the noble Mannucci family of Florence.

Renouard p. 231, n. 6. Emilio Russo, DBI, Vol. 69, 2007.

Size about 4 1/3 by 6 1/2"

367 pages plus extensive index

Original limp vellum with manuscript title to the spine

Very good interior condition, wear of the vellum, lacks front endpaper, cut down lower margin of title page

Text in Italian

Aldus Pius Manutius (Italian: Aldo Pio Manuzio; c.?1449/1452 – 1515) was an Italian printer and humanist who founded the Aldine Press. Manutius devoted the later part of his life to publishing and disseminating rare texts. His interest in and preservation of Greek manuscripts mark him as an innovative publisher of his age dedicated to the editions he produced. Aldus Manutius introduced the small portable book format with his enchiridia, which revolutionized personal reading and are the predecessor of the modern paperback book. He also helped to standardize use of punctuation including the comma and the semicolon.

Manutius wanted to produce Greek texts for his readers because he believed that works by Aristotle or Aristophanes in their original Greek form were pure and unadulterated by translation. Before Manutius, publishers rarely printed volumes in Greek, mainly due to the complexity of providing a standardized Greek typeface. Manutius published rare manuscripts in their original Greek and Latin forms. He commissioned the creation of typefaces in Greek and Latin resembling the humanist handwriting of his time; typefaces that are the first known precursor of italic type. As the Aldine Press grew in popularity, Manutius's innovations were quickly copied across Italy despite his efforts to prevent the piracy of Aldine editions.

Because of the Aldine Press's growing reputation for meticulous, accurate publications, Dutch philosopher Erasmus sought out Manutius to publish his translations of Iphigenia in Aulis.

In his youth, Manutius studied in Rome to become a humanist scholar. He was friends with Giovanni Pico and tutored Pico's nephews, the lords of Carpi, Alberto and Leonello Pio. While a tutor, Manutius published two works for his pupils and their mother. In his late thirties or early forties, Manutius settled in Venice to become a print publisher. He met Andrea Torresano in Venice and the two co-founded the Aldine Press.

Manutius is also known as "Aldus Manutius the Elder" to distinguish him from his grandson, Aldus Manutius the Younger

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