Aldus Manutius - Innovations

Innovations

Manutius wanted to create an octavo book format that gentlemen of leisure could easily transport in a pocket or a satchel, the long, narrow libri portatiles of his 1503 catalogue, forerunners of the modern pocket book. Manutius' edition of Virgil's Opera (1501) was the first octavo volume that he produced.

In his prefatory letter to Pietro Bembo in the 1514 Virgil, Aldus recorded that he "took the small size, the pocket book formula, from your library, or rather from that of your most kind father".

Manutius created the italic typeface style, for the exclusive use of which for many years he obtained a patent, though the honour of the invention is more probably due to his typefounder, Francesco Griffo, than to him. His typefaces were all designed and cut by the brilliant Griffo, a punchcutter who created the first roman type cut from study of classical Roman capitals. He did not use his italic typeface for emphasis as we do today, however, but rather for its narrow and compact letterforms, which allowed for more economical use of space (more words per page, fewer pages, lower production costs), thus enabling the printing of pocket-sized books.

Manutius is also believed to have been the first typographer to use a semicolon. In 1566, his grandson, Aldus Manutius the Younger, produced Orthographiae Ratio, the first book on the principles of punctuation.