Last Call: Aldus Manutius: The Venetian Renaissance
Owing to its popularity, “Aldo Manuzio. Il rinascimento di Venezia” (Aldus Manutius: The Venetian Renaissance) has been held over from its intended closing date of 19 June 2016 and closes instead on 31 July. The exhibition at Venice’s Gallerie dell’Accademia is devoted to the life and times of the printer credited with the founding of modern book production and publishing.
Through the late 15thand early 16th century, the rise of printing in Venice was tied to the rediscovery of ancient Latin and Greek poetry; appreciation for popular writing by Dante, Petrarch, and others; and a sense of connection to the city’s literary and arts culture. The exhibition documents this scene, focusing particularly on the collegial relationship between Manuzio and Erasmus of Rotterdam, the philosopher from the Netherlands who lived in Venice as a guest of the Manuzio family.
The Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, Manuzio’s most famous example of the illustrated book, and paintings by Titian and Giorgione also figure prominently in the exhibit.
Posted by Jean Marie Carey
“Map of the Circles of Hell” from Dante col sito, et forma dell’inferno tratta of the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library, Ithaca, NY. Printed by Aldus Manutius and his heirs, c. 1450-1515.
Titian, Presentation of Mary, c. 1534-1538, Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice.
Hans Holbein the Younger, Portrait of Erasmus, 1530. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, Robert Lehman Collection, Nr. 1975.1.138.
Giorgione, detached fragmentary fresco, c. 1508, Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice.
“The Doctrine of Signatures,” illustration from the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, by Francesco Colonna, printed by Aldus Manutius, Venice, 1499.
More Information: Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice.
The Hypnerotomachia Poliphili online, via Project Gutenberg.
G. Scott Clemons and H. George Fletcher, Aldus Manutius: A Legacy More Lasting Than Bronze. The Grolier Club: New York City, 2015.