Aldus Manutius Biography

Aldus Pius Manutius (/məˈnuːʃiəs, -ˈnjuː-/; Italian: Aldo Pio Manuzio; 1449/1452 – February 6, 1515) was a Venetian humanist, scholar, and educator. He became a printer and publisher in his forties when he helped found the Aldine Press in Venice. Manutius is known for publishing rare manuscripts in their original Greek and Latin form. Before Manutius, publishers rarely printed volumes in Greek. Manutius commissioned type cutters to create fonts in Greek and Latin resembling humanist handwriting of his time. Manutius' fonts would be the first known instance of italic type. Manutius also popularized the libelli portatiles, or portable little (specifically) classic books: small-format volumes that could be easily carried and read anywhere.