Aldus Pius Manutius (Bassiano, Papal States, 1449 - Venice, 1515). Institutionum grammaticarum libri quatuor. Venetiis: 1508 or 1514.
Aldo Manuzio or Aldus Manutius was the leading printer and typographer of his time, founder of a dynasty of printer-publishers. Among his innovations are portable-size books, which he called "enchiridion" or "handbook," devoted only to Greek and Latin classics and very selective texts of Italian literature. He also invented the "italics" (cut by Franceso Griffo da Bologna), a new typeface that mimicked humanists' cursive handwriting, which was first used in a full edition in the revolutionary portable Virgil of 1501. Aldo Manuzio was a humanist interested in classical languages, and director of the Aldine academy, an organization of scholars working on editions of classical texts.
Beginning in 1508, Aldo Manuzio worked in association with his father-in-law, Andrea Torresani di Asola. After Aldo's death, the Asolani family carried on the press until Paolo (Paulus), Aldo's third son, took it over in 1533. Paolo left it to his own son, Aldo Manuzio the Younger. The Aldine family printed about 1000 editions between 1495 and 1595.
In 1493 Andrea Torresani, who in 1505 became Aldo's father-in-law, published the first edition of Aldo Manuzio's Latin grammar, the Institutiones grammaticae. This book was written when Aldo was living in Capri as a tutor of the young prince Alberto Pio. His grammar enjoyed great success and was reprinted with slightly different titles during his life time in 1501, 1508 and in 1514, less that two months before the author's death. The next edition appeared in 1523, expanded with some of the Erasmus's grammatical work.
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