The Academic Paper Saga: Episode 2

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Step 3.5 Rework the Thesis
After some helpful suggestions and advice from Dr. Burton, I decided to change the argument of my thesis. Like I said earlier, I had trouble deciding on an argument to make about Manutius. Instead of pitting his success against other Venetian printers of the time, Professor Burton suggested I make an argument about the cause of Manutius’s success, because there were many possible causes for this. This seemed like a clearer, more arguable direction to go in, so here is my new thesis:

Despite the advantage of business connections, the success of early Venetian printer and publisher Aldus Manutius was attributed to his advances in typography, which were aimed at creating a smaller, more portable text.

Step 4: Draft the Essay
I then just had the job of writing the essay. Easier said than done. But I found as I read more and more about Manutius’s earlier life and then his ideas and innovations regarding print, he became a real person to me. Normally, I wouldn’t research about the typographic inventions of an early Venetian printer, but I found myself emotionally invested in this essay by the end. It felt like I was doing a treasure hunt of sorts. There was this hidden store of knowledge surrounding the topic of Manutius and his legacy, and I just had to unearth it. I could not have done this without the many useful sources I found within the library. These different (and sometimes conflicting) perspectives added all together, to help make my paper more complete and well-rounded. However, it is still a draft, and a rough one at that. Thankfully we will use tomorrow in class as a review process where I can receive input and criticism on how to improve my essay. Per Dr. Burton’s request, I am going to include a draft of my essay. Feel free to comment and give input!

Aldus Manutius: The Man, the Myth, the Typographer

        The invention of the printing press by Gutenberg in the fifteenth century was a watershed, ushering in a new wave of innovations for print and typography. A player on the early print scene, Venice, Italy was home to many successful printers, such as one Aldus Manutius. Printing at the turn of the sixteenth century, Manutius found success among his Greek and Latin texts. There were many competing reasons for this, among them the stable economic backing Aldus enjoyed or the celebrity connections with the likes of Erasmus or his own innovations in the realm of print and typography; however, the latter is the most influential. Despite the advantage of business connections, the success of early Venetian printer and publisher Aldus Manutius was attributed to his advances in typography, which were aimed at creating a smaller, more portable text.
        It can be said the success Manutius achieved was due to his secure business connections and economic backing. Early on, Manutius gained favor with the elite class by tutoring the children of Alberto Pio, the prince of Carpi. Once Manutius moved to Venice to embark on his printing venture, these connections paid off as the printer Andrea Torresani and influential Pierfranco Barbarigo became his financial backers (Davies 13). The press founded in Venice experienced little initial success and was under financial strain for the first three years; however, it rebounded in 1498 with the popular published series of Aristotle’s works. The death of Barbarigo and the declining economic climate was great cause for worry at the turn of the sixteenth century, and had Aldus not employed his innovative notions in typography, it may well have been the end of his printing venture.
        Aldus’s greatest innovation came with the simple change of creating a smaller book. Print, as with any new medium, first mimicked the styles of the previous medium, hand-written manuscripts or books. Hand-written and early printed books were large and cumbersome, unavailable to the masses while stored up in monasteries. Aldus’s innovation laid in breaking this status quo. He created libelli portatiles, or “portable little books” which he named the enchiridion, or “handbook”, meaning the book could fit comfortably in the hand (Fletcher 49). Later misnamed “pocketbooks”, his invention allowed for a larger distribution of his books to a less literate audience, devoid of humanist scholars and university professionals (Davies 46). Aldus intended to print books for the class of ladies and gentlemen. “The men for whom Aldus catered wanted books which they could put in their pockets and their saddlebags...” (Updike 126). Aldus could foresee the popularity and usefulness of these small ‘pocketbooks’ which, because they were portable, could in essence be their own advertising.  In a letter to his friend Scipio Carteromachus, Aldus writes “We have printed, and are now publishing, the Satires of Juvenal and Persius in a very small format, so that they may more conveniently be held in the hand and learned by heart (not to speak of being read) by everyone...” (Updike 126). It was not long until Aldus found great success in the growing popularity of these small books which began to be speedily imitated in such places as Florence, Fano, Lyons and even Venice itself (Norton 142). Printing smaller text may seem like a simple typographic innovation, but it was the saving grace for Aldus who found success in a city fraught with economic distress.
        The more typographically impressive feat of Aldus came from his invention of new types. Both the Roman type and the italic type can be attributed to Manutius’s work; however, the Aldine italic, as it was later called, was more impactful and more widely imitated.  The Aldine italic was in essence just an adaptation of the Greek fronts Manutius had already been using. For these Greek works, Manutius preferred to imitate the cursive Greek handwriting of the time. These cursive fonts soon grew to popularity. Then when a small, compact font was wanted for the production of Latin classics, Aldus adopted the cursive Greek types he had already created and adapted it for his Latin works.  Thus the Aldine italic, which it was later called, was founded upon a humanistic cursive Italian handwriting of a somewhat earlier period. Aldus may have also employed the italic form because the new cursive font was more suggestive of the “popular and informal character of his projected series” (Updike 128). Either way, the Aldine italic was “ a wholly new departure in Latin typography but parallel to Aldus’s adaptation of Greek cursive hands” (Davies 42). It was a sign of elegance and refinement, of which celebrated humanist and author Erasmus said it was among ‘the neatest types in the world’ (Davies 42). Needless to say, the Aldine italic became the model for all italic types that would follow, including numerous imitations and counterfeits that attempted to recreate the popular type.
        Both of these innovations, the ‘pocketbook’ and the Aldine italic, were first seen in Virgil’s Opera, printed in the new format in 1501. During the next five years, many classics of Italian and Latin literature were published in the octavo format, notably the works of Petrarch, Dante, and the Tuscan poets. There was such a large demand for these works that by 1514, Aldus had already exhausted two editions of the works of Virgil, which can be estimated to have been about 3000 for each run (Davies 46). The magnitude of the distribution of these works was unlike any success Aldus had thus before encountered. Through the immediate success of these works and their widespread imitations, it can be found that Manutius gained success as a result of his innovations in the realm of typography and not his financial backers.

There it is! I know the title is a little over the top, and it's not perfect by any means, but I wanted to get it out there in case any of you had suggestions for how to improve it. And thanks for reading this far--it was probably painful. Within the next few days, I will probably post subsequent drafts and revisions to further document my process. 


TO BE CONTINUED...