Aldo Manuzio is one of the most important names of the Venetian history, a publisher and an Italian humanist. His many innovations made him one of the most significant forerunners of the modern Italian and European publishing industry.
After completing his studies in Rome, Aldo Manuzio moves to Florence, where he works as a tutor at the Carpi family: the student Alberto III Pio is going to be the financier of his first publishings. In this period the man of culture starts to grow his first ideas for his editorial project with a specific goal, which is to preserve the immense heritage of the Latin and Greek literature. Manuzio chooses Venezia as the headquarters of his printing press that begins its activities around 1490. Thanks to his contribution, Venice becomes the Repubblica delle lettere (Republic of Letters), the dream of every humanist. His editions called Aldine reach every corner of Europe with the famous typographic mark of the dolphin wrapped around an anchor. The mark is the visual expression of Manuzio’s motto Festina lente (rush but quietly).
Aldo Manuzio isn’t a simple typographer because of his significant humanistic contribution: his 130 volumes boosted the Latin, Greek and mostly the Vernacular literature. His innovation in the publishing field are even more remarkable: from the more practical and cheaper octave to the definitive settlement of the punctuation marks with the invention of the semicolon, and the creation of the cursive type.
The history of Venice is rich of extraordinary and talented figures and Marciana Restaurant, whose name comes from the Library of the same name, wants to spread this immense cultural heritage.
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