Aldus Manutius

Winner of the 2025 Gladys Krieble Delmas Prize for the Best Book in Renaissance Venetian Studies. * Awarded by the Renaissance Society of America *
The central argument of Oren Margolis’s short, excellent new biography is that Aldus’s primary concern was not the books themselves, but the intellectual programme they represented. Far from being an inky-fingered pressman, Margolis’s Aldus is a serious, sometimes waspish humanist, determined to shape the scholarship of his day by bringing the classical Greek corpus into print in rigorously edited texts. * Times Literary Supplement *
Aldus Manutius is the bibliophile’s bibliophile . . . Anyone who has sat in the park with a paperback has Aldus to thank for freeing the book from the library, the desk, the metal chain that sometimes bound books to shelves . . . Margolis’s​ biography – the first in English for forty years – was occasioned by the 500th anniversary of Aldus’s death, an anniversary that prompted a flurry of international exhibitions, catalogues and scholarship . . . Margolis’s book is an elegant visual biography that beautifully reproduces woodcuts, fonts, paintings, coins, letters, dedications, prefaces. It’s a cultural history of Aldus the myth, not Aldus the man. A stylish book, worthy of its stylish subject. * London Review of Books *
In this biography of Aldus, Oren Margolis argues that his humanist purposefulness, his printing agenda, and his passion for scholarship of Greek set him apart from his peers to distinguish him as the first true "publisher" in the sense we recognise today. The author paints an eloquent picture, through a blizzard of erudition. -- Gavin O’Toole * Morning Star *
This is not a biography of Aldus, but rather an account of Aldus’s development of the profession of publishing, as distinct from the manual work of printing.Works Aldus published include Francesco Colonna’s Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (1499) and the letters of St. Catherine of Siena (1500), both discussed in this book. Aldus could engage in these activities owing to his education and the additional income – land as well as money – given him by the family of one of his tutees, and he used the income for going into the publishing business. Valuable for scholars of the history of the book. Recommended. * Choice *
In this beautifully written and produced volume, Oren Margolis turns a critical eye on conventional notions about Aldus’s contributions to Renaissance culture and the history of Venice . . . Through close readings of texts published by the Aldine Press, particularly the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili and the letters of Catherine of Siena, Margolis persuades readers to see Aldus not only as a pioneering innovator in print but also as a fully engaged intellectual participating in the cultural and political life of his time. * Renaissance Society of America Book Prize Committee *
Oren Margolis consciously eschews the idea of a conventional biography, announcing early on that he will instead argue for Manutius’s role as the inventor of publishing as we know it today . . . Margolis consistently displays both breadth and depth of knowledge in his analysis of early modern printing, Renaissance humanism, and the book trade . . . an erudite and well-researched book about an important figure of the Italian Renaissance . . . As the title suggests, Aldus Manutius was responsible for the invention of the modern publisher. -- Christopher Carlsmith * Sixteenth Century Journal *
Margolis’ study of Aldus Manutius is a hugely thoughtful, stimulating, and innovative reassessment of the career of this key Renaissance figure. He seeks to understand the persistent myths which have accreted around Aldus by recontextualising them with unexpected and illuminating connections and through detailed and fresh analysis of certain phases and achievements in his life. The result is a vivid and persuasively argued view of Aldus’ cultural significance. * Stephen Parkin, curator of the British Library's Printed Heritage Collections, 1450–1600 *