Virgil, Eclogues (Aldus Manutius, 1501)

The 1501 Virgil, printed in Venice by Aldus Manutius with an enormous print run of around 4000 copies, was the first literary edition printed in pocket-sized octavo and the first book printed entirely in italic.  These were important innovations, leading to wider accessibility and portability of texts and to the creation of a broader, more cultivated readership; but it is important to recognise how much Aldus owed to the legacy and format of the humanist manuscript book, as represented by the Bembo Sallust.  Facing the first page is a Latin epigram by Aldus, praising the skilful hands of Francesco Griffo of Bologna, the punch-cutter who actually produced the italic type.  Aldus’s claim to ownership of this innovation was backed up by the courts, and led to a rupture between the two men.  For our purposes, it highlights the developments in the idea of ‘intellectual property’ that the printing revolution provoked. 

Printed books in the Renaissance were often bound and decorated by their buyers: the decoration of the first example here is somewhat out of keeping with Aldus’s classicising aims; the latter, printed on vellum, displays beautiful illumination which captures the pastoral theme of the Eclogues and draws attention to the book's materiality.

Credit: Oren Margolis (July 2018)