House Alda

House Alda is one of the first publishers. In the initial period of printing (the second half of the 15th century), the printer was often the owner of the press (printing house), publisher, editor, proofreader, and sometimes author. He was assisted by several apprentices. Ald Manutius was one of the first to create a publishing house with a staff of proofreaders and editors.

First, Manucius decided to print books in Greek, which "seemed to be threatened with death and oblivion" ^[2] . Manucius himself was a great expert on Greek and spoke it fluently. In Venice, there was a Greek colony where the Greeks fleeing from Turkish rule fled. Here Manucius found the necessary manuscripts and collaborators. Money for the printing plant was given by Prince Alberto Pio di Carpi , whom Manucius had once taught languages.

Aristotle's works

The first books of Alda, according to the tradition of early typography, were of a large in-folio format. Fonts for them were engraved by Francesco Griffo , an engraver already known by then. For these books, he made Latin and Greek fonts. The latter was based on the manuscripts of Greek calligraphers.

The most famous of these Greek editions is the collection of works of Aristotle in 5 volumes (1495–1498). Like many other books of the incubation period (1452-1500), Aristotle is decorated with ornaments. Chapters begin with woodcut “woven” headpieces and large initials . Subsequently, Ald Manutius completely abandon the ornament. The ends of the chapters are typed with a “scarf”, paragraph indents are rarely used. Above the strip is a variable footer.

As V. Lazursky notes, the first folios of Manucius are most interesting from the point of view of typing and layout ^[3] . Manucius and his printers first experimented with the form before arriving at its final version, which in later books is almost unchanged.

About Etna

In 1496, Manucius published a small in-quarto book "On Etna." It was a dialogue written by Alda's friend, Pietro Bembo . Since that time, the publisher begins to print essays in Latin and Italian.

The font for her was engraved by Francesco Griffo. The same letters in it vary slightly, which creates liveliness in a set devoid of any additional jewelry. The simple, ascetic design of the book makes it very different from the books of the incubation period. It has no ornaments, no screensavers. The text begins with a small initial made on the field. The book does not have a title page .

The proportions of the fields in the book are 3: 4, the proportions of the strip are 2: 3. Thanks to the narrow dial strip, the outer margins in the book are increased, perhaps in order to make it more convenient to leave notes. The text is in large print. The ratio of the size of the font to the leading is 5: 8 ( golden ratio ). There are no paragraph indents in the book.

Polyphilic Dream

In 1499, Ald released a sumptuous illustrated folio - the famous Polyphilus Hypnotherotomy. Griffo made a new font for the book (an improved version of the Etna font). In addition, the book contains about 170 cut woodcuts by an unknown artist (the so-called Master Polyphilus).

The layout of the book is very remarkable. Together with illustrations, she creates complex compositions that vary on almost every U-turn. One of the book’s texts (the epitaph of Polia) was deliberately carelessly typed, as if in an attempt to convey the hero’s excited feelings. This trick anticipates the 20th century book experiments begun by Apollinaire and Marinetti .

End stripes are in the form of “scarves”, ships and bowls. The text of the book involves images of objects with inscriptions in various languages. All of them are made in the form of woodcuts , the text of the inscriptions is sometimes printed separately on top of the illustration.

M.I.Schelkunov wrote about this famous book by Ald, published in December 1499:

“... with this edition, Ald seems to summarize all the achievements of typographic art by the end of the 15th century” ^[4] .

Little Aldines

Having engaged in the printing of Latin classics, Manucius was the first to invent a series of pocket books. These "little Aldins" of the in-octave format, in fact, glorified the publishing house Alda ^[5] . Francesco Griffo made a readable but small-sized font of a new style, now known as italics . At first it was called "Aldin", and was used not for emphasis in the text, but they typed the whole book to them. The historian Renoir wrote about Griffo's italics:

... the new font had a great advantage - it looked like a beautiful calligraphic handwriting, which “should have been liked at a time when most books were still handwritten” ^[6] .

Small format books were much more convenient for the secular reader of the Renaissance, who led a mobile lifestyle, read and traveled a lot, than bulky medieval tomes. In addition, small Aldines were cheaper. They were published as carefully and accurately as all the other books of Manucius. All this made them extremely popular. The first such book was the works of Virgil, published in 1501.

Soon, the "little aldins" began to be copied by other printers. At first, only the font and format were copied, but later unscrupulous publishers began to reprint books in full, along with Alda's preface. Manucius fired several workers who apparently stole the font, and in each book began to print his famous publishing brand - a dolphin entwining an anchor. Sometimes she was accompanied by the motto: "festina lente", that is, "hurry slowly." In his “Address to the Reader,” Manucius described in detail how to distinguish a real aldine from a fake one.

“... Currently, as far as I know, in Lyon they print in fonts very similar to our compositions: Virgil, Horace, Juvenal, Persia, Martial, Lucan, Catullus, Tibull and Propertius, Terence - all these works without the name of the printer , without indicating the place and year, and when they are finished. On the contrary, on our specimens they will find this: “in Venice. House of Alda ”, and the year of publication. In addition, there is no special sign on those; on ours - there is a dolphin entwining an anchor (as can be seen below). In addition, the paper on those is the worst and, I do not know why, with a fetid odor; and the letters have ... some Gallic type. Capital letters are completely ugly. In addition, solos are not merged with vowels; they are separated. In our publications, on the contrary, almost all are merged and imitate writing by hand, it is worth giving yourself the trouble to see ... ” ^[7]

The most decisive step of Manucius was the appeal to the Senate with a request to grant the privilege of printing in italics. The privilege, for a period of 10 years, was granted to him by Pope Alexander VI in 1502, and later was repeatedly extended. This, in turn, caused the gap between Manucius and Francesco Griffo, who, in fact, was the author of italics. Griffo had to move to Fano , where the privilege did not work, and there he cut a few more fonts, in particular, italics for printer Soncino . Subsequently (1530) this italics was copied by Claude Garamon , as well as the Polyphile antiqua.

Manucius, by that time, possessed a sufficient number of different fonts, and no longer needed them. All of his subsequent books are typed in old Griffo fonts.

In design, the “little Aldines” are similar to the Alda in folio editions, which have the same proportions. In general, the books are elegant and very simple. Of the innovations: italics, publishing mark. Instead of initials, empty spaces were left for handwritten letters.

Ald Manutius died in 1515, and the case went to his father-in-law, Andrea Torrezani. House Alda continued to publish books, including Little Aldines, until 1529. In 1533, the publishing house was again opened by Paolo Manucius , the son of a famous printer. In general, the books were prepared just as accurately, their design changed little, following only general trends. So, shortly after the death of Alda, an aldina appeared, printed in two colors. In the second edition of Polyphilus (1545), in addition to the two old title pages, there is a third, similar to modern title pages. In 1574, the publishing house "Sons of Alda" (as it was then called) was inherited by Ald Manutius the Younger, the son of Paolo. The publishing house finally closed after his death in 1597.

Prominent Renaissance figures collaborated with Ald: Maxim Grek , Pietro Bembo, Erasmus of Rotterdam . Fonts for Alda were cut by one of the best engravers of that time - Francesco Griffo. Although Manucius himself was an editor and proofreader, not a printer, he constantly sought to improve the quality and art of printing. He carried out a number of innovations, which are used now. Among them: a flag set, an indent in a round, “typographic fun” (in Polyphile), page numbering, etc. The beauty of aldin is well-known, and the books themselves are considered to be a model of “classical typography” ^[8] . All this suggests that under the leadership of Alda Manutius, outstanding, albeit unknown to us, printers worked in his publishing house.

Claude Garamont copied for Etienne ("French Alds") Griffo's fonts in the first third of the XVI century. Subsequently, the fonts of Garamon and Griffo were repeatedly copied, and exist today in several digital versions.

1. ↑ Well-known fact. V. Lazursky in the book “Ald and Aldins” repeatedly calls Ald's books “masterpieces”. See: V. Lazursky. Ald and Aldins. M .: Book, 1977. TSB writes that "Aldin collections are kept in the largest libraries in the world and bibliophile collections."
2. ↑ V. Lazursky. Ald and Aldins. M .: Book, 1977.S. 20.
3. ↑ V. Lazursky. Ald and Aldins. M .: Book, 1977.S. 89.
4. ↑ {M. I. Schelkunov. History, technology, the art of typography. M., L .: State Publishing House, 1926.S. 96.
5. ↑ V. Lazursky. Ald and Aldins. M .: Book, 1977.S. 109.
6. ↑ Renoir's work is classic in the study of Ald's books. Renouard AA, Annales de l'imprimerie des Alde, P., 3ème édition, 1834. Cit. by: V. Lazursky. Ald and Aldins. M .: Book, 1977.S. 110.
7. ↑ Cit. by: M.I.Schelkunov. History, technology, the art of typography. M., L .: State Publishing House, 1926.S. 97.
8. ↑ For example: “The insightful contemplation of books of the Renaissance - the time of the actual heyday of typography - and the Baroque era best teaches us the rational construction of books." Jan Chichold . Book Appearance: Selected Book Design Articles. M .: Book, 1980.

• V. Lazursky. Ald and Aldins. M .: Book, 1977.
• M.I. Schelkunov. History, technology, the art of typography. M., L .: State Publishing House, 1926. S. 95-98.
• Renouard AA, Annales de l'imprimerie des Alde, P., 3ème édition, 1834.

• Aldins // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Electronic Facsimile of Aristotle's Works
• Electronic facsimile of the book "About Etna"
• Electronic Facsimile of Polyphilus Hypnotherotomy
• Electronic Facsimile of the Works of Virgil (1501)