1808.] )ALemorrs of Aldus Manutius,.or the Elder Aldus... 423 
they ate dispersed in many molaniats the 
greater part of which are not easily gbtain- 
ed, and which few teaders would be tempt- 
ed to collect. Besides. we should search 
the whole of these writings in vain, for 
that succession of clear and precise ideas, 
without which, all reading becouies pain- 
ful, and remains unprofitable. 
is therefore hoped, that, to those who-take 
an interest in all that concerns literary his- 
tory,—-who love the typographic art, and 
those labours which tend to preserve and 
multiply the productions of genius, the fol~ 
lowing account will prove acceptable and 
satisfactory :— 
LDUS MANUTIUS was. born ei- 
ther in” 1446 or 1447, but more 
probably in the latter year, at which 
time the typographical art, stillin its m- 
fancy, produced only sheets of desigus 
rudely cut in wood, and accompanied by. 
a few lines of description, still more 
rudely executed, so that the same pe- 
riod which produced this inestimable 
art, gave birth to one of its greatest im- 
provers and oruaments, 
Some have thought he was born at 
Rome, because in most of his editious 
he styles himself Aldus Romanus; but 
in some of them, we find that his native 
country is positively ascertained. In the 
“ Thesaurus Cornucopiae,” 1496, in 
the first and second volume of Ariosto, 
1495—97, he calls himself ‘¢ Manutius 
Bassianus,” from Bassiano, a small town 
in the duchy of Sermonetta. 
Aldus had the misfortune of being 
placed under the tuition of an ignorant 
pedagogue, who, instead of skilfully de- 
veloping the promising talents ot his pu- 
pil, uselessly fatigued him, by making him 
jearn grammar out of the “ Doctrinale 
Alexandri de Villa-Dei,”adry and abstruse 
work, written in barbarous verse. Such was 
the scarcity of elementary books at that 
time, that those children destined to re- 
ceive a liberal education, who had not the 
It 
happiness of being entrusted to the care of 
a master capable of removing their duifi- 
culties, were obliged to study the ridi- 
culous and unintelligible jargon, honoured 
by the pompous name of the ‘ Doctn- 
nale.” Aldus never forgot how much 
this book hat] harrassed him; one of his 
first literary labours, therefore, was the 
composition of a Latin grainmar, which 
he first. printed’ in? 1501, and of which 
many editions have since appeared, both 
from his own press, and from many others 
in different parts of Europe. During the 
_ childhood of Aldus, many Latin grammars 
£ 
. 
had been published less exceptionable than 
that of Villa Dei; but the Accidence 
4 
of Aldus totally obliterated all remem- 
brance of that éontemptible rhapsody. 
The grammar-ot Aldus cannot,’ indeed, 
boast either the precisron or the analyti- 
cal order of the best of our modern ele- 
mentary books; but the Dumiarsais, the 
Condillacs, the great men of the Port 
Royal had not then appeared: here 
therefore, asin typography, Aldus has 
the undoabted menit, of being almost the 
first, who, by his labours, enabled those 
that followed him to sticceed stall better. 
He quitted this ignorant master, and 
came to Rome, to receive lessons of Gas- 
par de Vérona, and of Domizio Calderi- 
no, of the same city, both celebrated pro- 
fessors of the beiles-lettres, under whom 
be made the most yapid progress. He 
cherished a grateful remembrance of 
their attentions to him, and, in several of 
his prefaces, he gives them testimonies of 
his great esteem and veneration, 
This first studies seein to have been 
confincd to the Latin language, and it 
was not till he arrived at years of matu= 
rity thathe applied to Greek. At che 
time of his leaving Rome in order to re- 
turn to Ferrara, he took lessons of the 
celebrated G.-Batt. Guarini, who there 
filled the Greek chair in so distinguished 
a manner. We may judge what pro- 
gress he made under the care of this able 
master by his numerous Greek editions, 
and by his Grammar of that language, 
which is still studied with much adyan- 
tage. 
He was the literary tutor of Albertus 
Pius, prince of Carpi, and, though young, 
discharged that important office, in such 
‘a manner as fixed the reputation both 
of the master and his pupil. 
In 1482, Ferrara being besieged by the 
Venetian army, Aldus quitted that city 
and retired to Mirandola, the residence 
of the celebrated Johannes Pieus. 
Some time afterwards he wentto Carpi, 
to reside near his pupil Albertus Pius, 
_Picus soon joined their society, and it is 
probable, that, in the literary conferences 
of these scholars, the project was first 
formed for the establishment of an ex- 
cellent printing-office, which should prin- 
cipally be designed to give correct and 
elegant editions of the best Greek and 
Lativ authors; and in all probability, 
these two princes, so ardently attached 
to literature, defrayed the first expences 
of this establishment, as the circum- 
stances of Aldus did not enable him te 
undertake it alone. 
Venice appeared to him, from its 
‘feigning taste for literature and ‘the arts, 
the 
