The Aldine family come at the head of the Venetian printers, not only in
the extreme beauty of their typographical work, but also in the matter
of Marks. The first (and rarest) production of the founder of the
dynasty, Aldus Manutius, 1494-1515, was “Musæi Opusculum de Herone &
Leandro,” 1494, a small quarto, and his life’s work as a printer is seen
in about 126 editions which are known to have been issued by him.
“I have made a vow,” writes Aldus, in his preface to the “Greek Grammar”
of Lascaris, “to devote my life to the public service, and God is my
witness that such is my most ardent desire. To a life of ease and quiet
I have preferred one of restless labour. Man is not born for pleasure,
which is unworthy of the truly generous mind, but for honourable labour.
Let us leave to the vile herd the existence of the brutes. Cato has
compared the life of man to the tool of iron: use it well, it shines,
cease to use it and it rusts.” It was not until 1502 that Aldus adopted
a Mark, the well-known anchor, and this appears for the first time in
“Le Terze Rime di Dante” (1502), which, being a duodecimo, is the first
edition of Dante in portable form. This Mark, and one or two others with
very slight alterations which naturally occurred in the process of being
re-engraved, was used up to the year 1546. In 1515 the original Aldus
died, and as his son Paolo or Paulus was only three years of age, Andrea
Torresano, a distinguished printer of Asola, into whose possession the
“plant” of Jenson had passed in 1481, and whose daughter married the
first Aldus, carried on the business of his deceased son-in-law, the
imprint running, “In ædibus Aldi et Andreæ Asulani soceri.” In 1540
Paulus Manutius took over the entire charge of the business founded by
his father. The Anchor, known as the “Ancora grassa,” which he used from
1540 to 1546, is more carefully engraved but less characteristic than
that of his father; whilst that which he used from 1546 to 1554 was
usually but not invariably surrounded by the decorative square indicated
in the accompanying reproduction; then he again modified his Mark, or
more particularly its border. Paulus Manutius died in April 1574. Aldus
“the younger,” 1574-98, the son of Paulus and the last representative of
the house, also used the anchor, the effect of which is to a great
extent destroyed by the elaborate coat-of-arms granted to the family by
the Emperor Maximilian. Aldus “the younger,” was a precocious scholar,
of the pedant type, and under him the traditions of the family rapidly
fell. He married into the eminent Giunta family of printers, and died at
the age of 49. The famous Mark of the anchor had been suggested by the
reverse of the beautiful silver medal of Vespasian, a specimen of which
had been presented to Aldus by his friend Cardinal Bembo, the eminent
printer, adding the Augustan motto, “Festina lente.” The Mark of the
dolphin anchor was used by many other printers in Italy, France, Holland
(Martens, Erasmus’ printer, among the number), whilst the “Britannia” of
Camden, 1586, printed by Newbery, bearing this distinctive Mark, which
was likewise employed by Pickering in the early part of the century;
and, as will be seen from the next chapter, is still employed by more
than one printer.
[Illustrations: ANDREA TORRESANO.