How the book changed the world: Aldo Manuzio and the Renaissance in Venice
An outstanding exhibition, currently on view at the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice, retraces the creation of the modern book, focusing on how Manuzio’s visionary project made knowledge available to a much larger audience.
aldus Manutius (c.1445-1515) is the first and most celebrated of the scholar-printers of the Renaissance. He founded the Aldine Press in Venice in 1494, introducing a new pocket-sized format (octavo format) that had a huge impact on book production. This was possible thanks to the creation of the italic typeface. Among the first books published by Manutius there were works by Aristotle, Virgil, Dante, and Pietro Bembo. Helping the circulation of classical and modern knowledge, Manutius fostered the rise of a new Golden Age.
The exhibitions traces a series of fascinating links between Aldus’ enterprise and the visual arts. On display there are more than a hundred works, on loan from major museums in Italy and elsewhere across the world, and more than thirty rare printed editions.
Aldo Manuzio and the Renaissance in Venice closes on 19 June 2016.
Artworks on display include:
Giovanni Bellini, Four Allegories – The Falsehood, c. 1490-1504.
Cima da Conegliano, Saint Helena, 1495.
Giorgione, The tempest, c. 1506-08
Vincenzo Catena,Saint Jerome in his Study, c. 1510
Palma Vecchio, Portrait of a woman, c. 1512-14
Titian, Portrait of Jacopo Sannazaro, c. 1514-18
Parmigianino, Portrait of a man with a petrarchino
Lorenzo Lotto, Portrait of Laura da Pola, 1544.
Posted by Martina Bollini