Aldus Manutius

“ The first and most important of these publishers, the man who, on the ground of high ideals and of great things accomplished, is properly to be honored as facile princeps in the long list of the great publishers of Europe, was Aldus Manutius of Venice, a worthy successor to Atticus, the friend of Cicero, who, 1550 years earlier, had done his part in introducing to Italy and to the Roman world the classics of Greece. ”

“ After staying several months at Rome he went to Venice, and here made the valuable acquaintance of the great printer, Aldus Manutius Romanus, who was then engaged in bringing out the editiones principes of some of the most important Greek classics, by which he earned the gratitude of scholars, and who afterwards printed some of Linacre's own works. [6] Aldus appears to have treated the English scholar with great kindness, which is acknowledged as a personal favour by his friend Grocyn, in a letter to Aldus, which must have been written shortly after Linacre's return from Italy. ”

“ By them he was esteemed a miracle of learning—divinum planè juvenem: and we have an instance in our own times of a great poet and philosopher, whose published works scarcely bear out the high reputation he enjoyed for colloquial ability. The idolized friend of Aldus Manutius, of Lorenzo Massa, Giovanni Donati, and Sperone Speroni, amongst the must accomplished scholars of their age,—the antagonist of the redoubted Arcangelus Mercenarius and Giacomo Mazzoni, men who had sounded all the depths of philosophy,—could not have been other than an extraordinary person. ”

“ The undoubted triumph of the Church deprives it of all positive interest. The night of the Middle Ages had set in. Not till the time of the Renaissance do we see the life of Apollonius brought to light again with many other specimens of ancient art, all of them doubtless surprised to see the light of day once more. Even then, however, there was something suspicious about this resuscitated Apollonius, so much so that the learned Aldus Manutius hesitated for a time before he granted the publicity of the press to the work of Philostratus. ”

“ Aldus Manutius subsequently associated himself {42} with Torresani, and, becoming his son-in-law and heir, eventually inherited his punches, matrices, and types. The Roman founts of Aldus were eclipsed by his Italic and Greek, but he cut several very fine alphabets. Renouard81 mentions eight distinct founts between 1494 and 1558.
GERMANY.—Whether the fount of the Wiedenbach monks was the progenitor of the Venetian Roman, or whether each can claim an independent origin, there seems little doubt that the fount of the “ bizarre” is entitled to rank as the first Roman letter in Germany. ”

“ In preparing the works of Cicero for the press, Colines had the advantage of the carefully revised and ably annotated text of Paul Manutius, the son of Aldus. The most important of the works of contemporary writers which bore the imprint of Colines was an edition of the Colloquies of Erasmus, which was issued with the authorisation of the author, by whom it had been carefully revised. ”

“ The second treatise of Manutius, De Civitate, discusses the polity of the Roman republic. Though among the very first scholars of his time, he will not always bear the test of modern acuteness. Even Grævius, who himself preceded the most critical age, frequently corrects his errors. Yet there are marks of great sagacity in Manutius; and Niebuhr, who has judged the antiquaries of the sixteenth century as they generally deserve, might have found the germ of his own celebrated hypothesis, though imperfectly developed, in what this old writer has suggested ”

“ Hence they might serve for any age, and seem like pattern forms for the epistles of a literary man. In point of mere style there can be no comparison between the letters of a Sadolet or Manutius on the one hand, and those of a Scaliger, Lipsius, or Casaubon on the other. But while the first pall on the reader by their monotonous elegance, the others are full of animation and pregnant with knowledge. Even in what he most valued, correct Latin, Manutius, as Scioppius has observed, is not without errors. ”

“ The cruelty of throwing captives to wild beasts, however, we find surpassed by a German named Magnentius, who, having become a Roman soldier, set himself up for Emperor in opposition to Constantius. This Magnentius, on the eve of the great battle of Marsa, sacrificed a maiden, and mixing her blood with wine, gave his army to drink, and invoked his gods, pouring a libation of this fiendish drink in their honour. He was totally defeated, and killed himself. ”

“ They had next for an assailant Mostilius Mancinus, whose troops they so dispirited, by continual slaughters, that not a man of them could endure the looks or voice of a Numantine. Yet, when they might have put all his followers to the sword, they preferred making a treaty also with him, and were content with despoiling his men of their arms. But the people of Rome, incensed at the ignominy and shame of this Numantine treaty, no less than at the Caudine treaty of former days, expiated the dishonour of their miscarriage, for the present, by the surrender of Mancinus. ”

“ Come and see it; it only arrived from Athens this morning."
The next time I visited the house of Caius I spoke to Paul of what Gallio's suspicions were; a sullen glow filled his eyes.
"It is no new thing," he said; "on every side we are looked upon with suspicion and distrust; we are poor, and live cheek by jowl with the evil things of life, and therefore we are also evil. The rich, and those in high places trample upon us; yet we shall be justified."
Pride filled him.
"In a little time you go away to Rome, and I to Jerusalem to carry alms to the saints there, whom the Jews persecute. ”

“ Long before the birth of Christ, the Gauls drive out the Etruscans from Mantua, and aggrandize and beautify the city, to be in their turn expelled by the Romans, under whom Mantua again waxes strong and fair. In this time, the wife of a farmer not far from the city dreams a marvelous dream of bringing forth a laurel-bough, and in due time bears into the world the chiefest of all Mantuans, with a smile upon his face. ”

“ Creep away from them who would put their feet upon you. Go live and die with the wild men of the far deserts."
"Traitor to the gods!" said Manius, threatening with his sword. "Roman
Jew! I am of noble birth, and claim the right of combat."
"I give it, though you have no better right than dogs. Well, it would please my hand to slay you. I know the name and father you have dishonored, and you are grandnephew of the good Lady Claudia—noble mother of Publius. For their sake I give you the right of combat. By the wayside near Bethlehem are lonely hills. ”

“ Mancinus returned to Rome and ventured to appear in the senate, but a question was raised as to his right to be there, for it was argued that a man who had been so surrendered ceased to be a citizen and could not recover his civic rights by the fiction of postliminium, as a man who had escaped from the enemy could. (Cicero, De Oratore, 40.) But the subtlety of the Romans found a solution of the difficulty in the case of Mancinus: there can be no surrender, if there is nobody to receive the surrender ”

“ Manius, [2] the Roman consul, after the defeat of Antiochus, requested the Achæans to restore the banished Lacedæmonians to their country, which motion was seconded and supported by all the interest of Titus. But Philopœmen crossed it, not from ill-will to the men, but that they might be beholden to him and the Achæans, not to Titus and the Romans. For when he came to be General himself, he restored them. So impatient was his spirit of any subjection, and so prone his nature to contest every thing with men in power. ”

“ Decentius, whom Magnentius had called to his assistance, being now on the road to Italy, soon heard of the misfortune, of Magnentius; meeting with some legions and troops from which he saw no hope of escaping, slew himself. After these occurrences, the whole empire being now in the hands of Constantius, he began to be more arrogant than before, and could not conduct himself with any moderation in his prosperity. The state-informers, with which such men are usually surrounded, and which are designed for the ruin of those that are in prosperity, were augmented. ”

“ The noble Manlius, tumbled from the very rock, which his single arm had but a little while before defended, seemed to lie there, even at his feet, mortally maimed and in the agony of death, yet even so too proud to mix one groan with the curses he poured forth against Rome's democratic rabble. ”

“ The winter of 1851 saw Manning established in Rome, where he spent the best part of the next three years in study at the Accademia dei Nobili Ecclesiastici and in the intimate society of Pius IX. The summers he divided between England and Ireland. His first appearance in a Roman catholic pulpit was made in the little chapel in Horseferry Road, Westminster, on 10 June 1852. The same year he published four lectures delivered in Southwark on 'The Grounds of Faith' (London, 8vo, 9th ed. 1888) , in which he represented Romanism as the only alternative to rationalism. ”

“ A group
of men entered in a quiet manner, as if not wishing to be heard by passers-by. They were messengers from the Samnite people, who were at war with Rome, and they brought Manius a large gift of gold in order to gain the favor of so valiant a foe.
“No,” he said, “a man who can be satisfied with such a supper as this has no need of gold; and I think it more glorious to conquer the Samnites than to take their gold.” The messengers went away looking foolish.
So Cato would look at the ancient cottage and say to himself:
“I should like to live as Manius lived, in a very simple style ”

“ Manning's prophetic instinct proved correct. Pius IX. paused, reflected, took advice, and ultimately, not however without considerable misgivings, set aside all three of the Chapter's nominations, and on his own authority appointed Manning. [30] Now Manning led the English Ultramontanes in the Council of the Vatican. But the task of Romanising the English Catholics was no easy thing. The literature of the Roman Communion in England and Ireland during the eighteenth and early nineteenth century shows how thoroughly saturated they were with Catholic as contrasted with Ultramontane convictions. ”

“ This success drew on Manius into the level plain, and here, in open battle, he defeated part of the enemy; but, in other quarters, finding himself overpowered by the elephants and forced back to his trenches, he commanded out those who were left to guard them, a numerous body, standing thick at the ramparts, all in arms and fresh. These coming down from their strong position, and charging the elephants, forced them to retire; and they in the flight turning back upon their own men, caused great disorder and confusion, and gave into the hands of the Romans the victory, and the future supremacy. ”

“ But in the supernatural order it is the will of God that the fraternal hatred of Cain should be replaced by the fraternal love of pastors. "Am I my brother's keeper?" [12] is the voice of the world. "I am the Good Shepherd" [13] is the voice of our Master laying down for His pastors the law of their life. Under the Old Law, God commanded that a watchman should be set over the people in time of war. If the watchman, seeing the sword coming, gave warning by the trumpet, then, if any man did not look to himself and so should perish his blood was upon his own head, and the watchman was free. ”

“ This business, O judges, is yours; it is worthy of your dignity, it is worthy of your clemency. This is rightly expected of you, to release a most virtuous and innocent man, one dear and beloved by many men, at last from these his misfortunes; so that all men may see that odium and faction may be excited in popular assemblies, but that in courts of justice there is room only for truth.
Footnotes ↑ Manutius makes a mistake in fixing this consulship of Lepidus and Tullus, and by consequence, the delivery of this oration, one year earlier.↑ Junius had been the judge in the trial of Oppianicus. ”

“ Monsignor Talbot even trembled for the position of Manning in England. "I am afraid that the old school of Catholics will rally round Newman in opposition to you and Rome. Stand firm, do not yield a bit in the line you have taken. As I have promised, I shall stand by you. You will have battles to fight, because every Englishman is naturally anti-Roman. To be Roman is to an Englishman an effort. ”

“ Last, but most feared and most prominent in the Etruscan mind, were the rulers of the lower regions, Mantus and Mania, the king and queen of the under world. Mantus was figured as an old man, wearing a crown, with wings at his shoulders, and a torch reversed in his hand. Mania was a fearful personage, frequently propitiated with human sacrifices. ”

“ When Mænius, after nobly gobbling down
His fortune, took to living on the town,
A social beast of prey, with no fixed home,
He ranged and ravened o'er the whole of Rome;
His maw unfilled, he'd turn on friend and foe ”

“ When he found his army restored to a sound condition, physical and moral, at once hardened to labour and amenable to discipline, in a word, thoroughly efficient, he proceeded to act. It was as a keen, well-tempered sword in his hands, and he struck with promptitude and energy.
His first plan was to follow the line of attack which Mancinus had initiated. The weak spot in the defences of a wealthy city is commonly found in the buildings which are allowed to grow up in times of peace outside the fortifications. Life in a walled city is often both irksome and unhealthy. ”