AL'DINE EDITIONS, the name given to the works that issued from the preSs of Aide Manuzio (q.v.) (Let., Aldus Manutius) and his family in Venice, 1490-1597. Recom mended by their intrinsic value, as well as by their handsome exterior, they have been highly prized by the learned and by book-collectors. Many of them are the first editions (editiones principes) of Greek and Roman classics ; others contain corrected texts of mod ern classic writers, as of Petrarch, Dante, Boccaccio, etc., carefully collated with the 3ISS. All of them are distinguished for the remarkable correctness of the typography; the Greek works, however, being in this respect somewhat inferior to the Latin and Italian. The editions published by Aldus, the father, form an epoch in the annals of printing, as they contributed in no ordinary measure to the perfecting of types. No one had ever before used such beautiful Greek types, of which he got nine different kinds made, and of Latin as many as fourteen. It is to him, or rather to the engraver, Fran cesco of Bologna, that we owe the types called by the Italians corsiri, and known to us as italics, which he used for the first time in the 8vo edition of ancient and modern classics, commencing with Virgil, 1501. 31antizio's impressions on parchment are exceedingly beautiful; he was the first printer who introduced the custom of taking some impressions on better paper—that is, finer or stronger than the rest of the edition. The first example of his is afforded in the Epistolee, Grave, 1499. It would be difficult to name another who has brought so much zeal, disinterestedness, taste, and knowledge to the furtherance of litera ture, especially classical literature. After his death, in 1515, his business was superintended
by his father-in-law, Andreas Asulanus. Paul, the son of Aldus, possessed the same enthu siasm for Latin classics that his father had for Greek. He died at Rome in 1597. The printing establishment founded by Aldo continued in active operation for 100 years, and during this time printed 908 different works. The distinguishing mark is an anchor, en twined by a dolphin, generally with the motto, Sudarit et glen. Under the direction of the grandson of the founder, it lost the superiority which it had formerly maintained over all the other printing-presses in Italy. The demand which arose for editions from this office, and especially for the earlier ones, induced the printers of Lyon and Florence, about 1502, to begin the system of issuing counterfeit Aldines. The Aldo mania has considera bly diminished in later times. Among the A. works which have now become very rare may be mentioned the Hens Beaks .hfaria3 Virginis of 1497 ;, the Virgil of 1501; and the Bhetores Grad ; not to mention the editions from 1404 to 1497, which are now extremely rare. The most complete collections known are those of the former grand duke of Tus cany, and of Renouard, the bookseller of Paris. In 1834 appeared a third edition of the monograph published by Renouard, Annales de Imprimerie des Aides, on llistoire des Trois Manuces, et de leer editions : par A. Renouard, Paris, 1834. Ebert has published a catalogue of all the authentic A. E. in the supplement to Vol. I. of his Bibliographical Dictionary.