1804.] 
cles, Euripides, &c. &c. He publifhed, at 
the leaft, a volume every month. Thefe 
publications were in all refpeéts excellent. 
‘They were of works the moft valuable in 
all literature, ancient or modern. ‘The 
compofition of the types was finely regular 
and uniform; the prefs-work was ad- 
mirably exteuted ; and the ink fo truly 
good, that it retains to this day a its 
beauty and luftre of colour. 
In the neceflary pains upon thefe ee 
Aldo had the affiftance of fome of the 
beft and moft learned among his contem- 
poraries. His houfe becamea fort of New 
Academy. The learned in Venice began, 
about the year 1500, to aflemble there on 
fixed days of frequent recurrence, for con- 
verfation on interefting literary topics: 
and their meetings were continued for feve- 
ral years fubfequent. ‘The topics on which 
they converfed were, ufually, what books 
were fitteft- to be printed, what manu. 
{cripts might be confulted with the great- 
eft advantage, what readings, out of a di- 
verfity, for any one paflage, ought to be 
preferred. Among thofe who attended 
thefe converfations, were, befides Aldo 
himfelf, the famous A. Navagero, P. 
Bembo, the celebrated Cardinal; Eraf- 
mus, when he was at Venice; P. Alcio- 
nie, M. Mufuro, Marc-Ant. Cocch. Sa- 
bellico, Alberto Pio, Prince of Carpi, and 
others, whofe names, though they were 
then eminent, are not now equally i in re- 
membrance. Among thofe who aflifted 
Aldo in the correétion of the prefs, were 
men not lefs eminent than Demetrius 
Chalchondylas, Girolamo Aleandro, af- 
terwards famous as a Cardinal, and even 
Erafmus, 
There are fome curious circumftances 
in the hiftory of the acquaintance and con- 
nexion between Erafmus and Aldo. The 
’ Adagia of Polydore Virgil had been print- 
ed at Venice, and well received in the 
world. Erafmus, aware of this fact, 
wrote from Bologna, to requeft that Aldo 
would undertake the printing of his Ada- 
gia. Aldo readily agreed to the propo- 
fal, and invited Erafmus upon it to Ve- 
nice. When Enaimus came, it was not 
till after fome delay that he obtained ad- 
mit.ance to the printer’s clofet, whofe 
fervants were not aware of the ftranger’s 
literary confequence. But Aldono f oner 
keew that it was Erafmus who waited 
for him, than he haftened to receive his 
vifitor with open arms. He did more: 
he ftopped the progrefs of {everal import- 
ant Greek and Latin works, which he had 
then in the prefs, to make room for the 
printing of the great collection of Eraf 
Memoir of Aldo Manuzio. 453 
mus, with the defired expedition. Eraf- 
mus was, in the mean time, entertained 
in the houfe of Andrea Torrefano d’Alo- 
Ja, father-in-law to Aldo, with whony 
Aldo and his wife appear, by Erafmus’s 
account, to have lived. D’Atola was 
rich ; yet his table was, even for that of 
an Italian family, parfimonioufly ferved : 
and Erafmus loved good cheer. The 
Dutchman made frequent remonftrances 
to his friend Aldo, againft the thinnefs of 
the foups, the abfence of folid animal 
food, the weaknefs and fournefs of the 
wine, the general fcantinefs of the whole 
provifions. ‘The Italians, whole climate, 
and natural habits, had taught them to 
live much more fparingly than was ufual 
jor the Dutch and Germans, were. as= 
tonifhed and offended by his con:plaints. 
Some {mall additions, fuch as a fowl or 
two, and perhaps half a dozen eggs a 
week, were made on his account to the 
commons of the family. But thefe dain- 
ties were fometimes intercepted by the 
women in the kitchen, on their way to the 
table. On ihe table, they were devoured 
by the reit who fat at it, full more ea- 
gerly than by Frafmus. And if he was 
not abfolutely flarved, he was afluredly 
a good deal mortified in his appetite for a 
glafs of good wine anda mefs of delicate 
and fayoury meat, before he could tee the 
printing of his Adagia entirely at an end. 
His humours and complaints made him at 
length a very unpleafant inmate to the fa- 
mily; while he was, on the other hand, 
diffatisfied ftill more, that his murmurs’ 
were not more Pa attended tos 
They parted with mutual diflike. Eraf- 
mus wrote afterwards his Dialogue, 
which has the title of Opulentia Sordiday 
in ridicule of the parfimonious {pirit, and 
the fcantily-ferved table of Andrea d’Afo-. 
Ja. Aldo, and his fucceflors, whenever 
they, after this time, reprinted any work _ 
by Evafmus, avoided to mention his name, 
and gave him fimply the appellation of 
Tranfalpinus quidam homo. 
Aldo, not thinking that he did enough 
for the interefts of literature, in printing, 
for the firft time, fo many excellent books 
in the Latin, Greek, and Italian languages, 
gave, in his Latin Grammar, in the year 
1501, a fhort Introduction to the Know. 
ledge of the Hebrew Tongue; and even 
propofed to give a beautiful edition of the 
original Hebrew of the Sacred Scriptures, 
with the Septuagint and the Vulgate Latin 
verfions. Of this, however, he was divert- 
ed from printing more than a {pecimeii 
fheet. That fheet, now in the National 
Library at Paris, exhibits the text in thé 
three 
