Aldus Manutius was the most innovative scholarly publisher of the Renaissance. This ITRL edition contains all of his prefaces to his editions of the Greek classics, translated for the first time into English. They provide unique insight into the world of scholarly publishing in Renaissance Venice.

"In this marvelous, learned, and friendly volume, Helen Barolini traces the contours of his career and reveals Aldus and the Aldine press in historical and cultural context; she admirably conveys the magic of an age in which the book as we know it was invented.

Type Spaces examines pages of books printed and published by Aldus Manutius in Venice around 1500. By measuring the word-spaces, author Peter Burnhill discerns a system of measurement at work and comes up with the surprising suggestion that this printing shows a unified system of dimensions: of type size, of "leading" or line-increment, of line length, and of text area. He argues that the exceptional figures of Manutius and his punchcutter, Francesco Griffo, used a set of "in-house norms." This system of unified measurement has a rationality that can apply to any process of type design, in any age, and with any system of production, making the book relevant even for contemporary designers. Since the passing of metal type, we have had no clear method of measuring type size and Burnhill's work suggests a new (or very old) approach to measurement in typography.

Francesco Colonna's weird, erotic, allegorical antiquarian tale, "Hypnerotomachia Poliphili", together with all of its 174 original woodcut illustrations, has been called the first "stream of consciousness" novel and was one of the most important documents of Renaissance imagination and fantasy. The author -- presumed to be a friar of dubious reputation -- was obsessed by architecture, landscape and costume (it is not going too far to say sexually obsessed) and its woodcuts are a primary source for Renaissance ideas.

Aldus Manutius (c. 1451 1515) was the most important scholarly publisher of the Renaissance. His Aldine Press was responsible for more first editions of classical literature, philosophy, and science than any other publisher before or since. This volume presents Aldus s prefaces to Latin classics and modern humanist writers, translated into English."