Aldo Manutius was the most influential printer of the Italian Renaissance. Like his contemporaries Sebastian Gryphius in Lyons and Christopher Plantin in Antwerp, he published numerous editions of the Classics, among other texts, and did so in volumes of a smaller format than had been common during the incunabula period. Aldines have always been sought after and are a valued part of any library. Collectors have also often succumbed to the desire to dress up their Aldine editions, perhaps because the small format made these books good candidates for elegant but affordable new bindings. This sampling of Aldines from Princeton's collection constitutes a small history of European bookbinding in itself, spanning 500 years.
Italian, sixteenth century
The majority of Aldine editions were first offered for sale in simple laced parchment bindings.
Author: Machiavelli, Niccolò, 1469-1527
Title: Historie di Nicolò Machiavelli.
Published: Venice: Casa de'figliuoli di Aldo, 1540.
Location: Rare Books: Grenville Kane Collection (ExKa)
Call number: Special 1540 Machiavelli
Spine height: 17 cm

 
Italian, fifteenth century
A contemporary panel-stamped binding on a small book of hours
Author: Catholic Church
Title: [Book of hours. Greek].
Published: Venice: Aldo Manuzio, 1497.
Location: Scheide Library (WHS)
Call number: Scheide 5.3.3
Spine height: 13 cm

 
Italian, sixteenth century
A sixteenth-century binding style that appears frequently on Aldine editions.
Author: Dante Alighieri, 1265-1321
Title: Dante col sito, et forma dell'inferno.
Published: Venice: Aldo Manuzio & Andreas Torresanus, 1515.
Location: Rare Books (Ex)
Call number: 3127.33.1049
Spine height: 16 cm

 
Italian, sixteenth century
An Italian gold-tooled goatskin binding of the sixteenth century.
Author: Cicero, Marcus Tullius
Title: [Correspondence].
Published: Venice: Aldo Manuzio & Andreas Torresanus, 1513.
Location: Rare Books (Ex)
Call number: 2837.1513
Spine height: 17 cm

 
French, sixteenth century
An Aldine from the library of the sixteenth-century French book collector Jean Grolier.
Author: Virgil
Title: Virgilius
Published: Venice: Sons of Aldo Manuzio, 1541
Location: Rare Books: Junius Morgan Collection (VRG)
Call number: 2945.1541
Spine height: 17 cm

 
American, nineteenth century
In the 1890s, finisher Frank Mansell at the Club Bindery in New York created a retrospective Grolier binding on this Virgil.
Author: Virgil
Title: Virgilius.
Published: Venice: Aldo Manuzio & Andreas Torresanus, 1514.
Location: Rare Books: Junius Morgan Collection (VRG)
Call number: 2945.1519.2
Spine height: 17 cm

 
England, eighteenth century
An eighteenth-century English binding.
Author: Virgil
Title: Vergilivs
Published: Venice: Aldo Manuzio, 1501.
Location: Rare Books: Junius Morgan Collection (VRG)
Call number: 2945.1501 c.4
Spine height: 18 cm

 
England, nineteenth century
An early nineteenth-century English binding in the style of Roger Payne.
Author: Virgil
Title: Vergilius.
Published: Venice: Aldo Manuzio, 1501.
Location: Rare Books: Junius Morgan Collection (VRG)
Call number: 2945.1501 c.3
Spine height: 18 cm

 
American, nineteenth century
A late nineteenth-century binding for the American collector, Robert Hoe.
Author: Virgil
Title: Vergilivs
Published: Venice: Aldo Manuzio, 1501.
Location: Rare Books: Junius Morgan Collection (VRG)
Call number: 2945.1501
Spine height: 18 cm

 
French, nineteenth century
A nineteenth-century French binding by Trautz-Bauzonnet.
Author: Dante Alighieri
Title: Le terze rime di Dante.
Published: Venice: Aldo Manuzio,1502.
Location: Scheide Library (WHS)
Call number: Scheide 12.3.13
Spine height: 10 cm