||This article includes a list of references, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. (January 2010)|
Aldine Press was the printing office started by Aldus Manutius in 1494 in Venice, from which were issued the celebrated Aldine editions of the classics (Latin and Greek masterpieces plus a few more modern works). The Aldine Press is famous in the history of typography, among other things, for the introduction of italics. The press was the first to issue printed books in the small octavo size, similar to that of a modern paperback, and like that intended for portability and ease of reading. The press issued 127 editions during the lifetime of Aldus. The press was continued after Aldus’s death in 1515 by his wife and her father until his son Paolo (1512–1574) took over. His grandson Aldo then ran the firm until his death in 1597. Due to the firm's commercial success many pirated editions were also produced in Lyons and elsewhere. Today, antique books printed by the Aldine Press in Venice are referred to as Aldines.
 Initial innovations
The press was started by Aldus based on his love of classics, and at first printed new copies of Plato, Aristotle, and other Greek and Latin classics. He also printed dictionaries and grammars to help people interpret the books. While scholars wanting to learn Greek used to employ learned Greeks to teach them directly, the Aldine editions, edited by Greek scholars, allowed many scholars across Europe to study Greek. Historian Elizabeth Eisenstein claimed that the fall of Constantinople in 1453 had threatened the importance and survival of Greek scholarship, but publications such as those by the Aldine Press secured it. Erasmus was one of the scholars learned in Greek that the Aldine Press employed.
When the press expanded to current titles, they wrote some books themselves and employed other writers, including Erasmus. As this expansion into current languages (mainly Italian and French) and current topics continued, the press took on another role and made perhaps even more important contributions. Beyond the preservation of Hellenic studies, Aldus's contributions are also respected in the development of a smaller type than others in use. His contemporaries called it Aldine Type; today we call it italics. Their logo of the anchor and dolphin is represented today in the symbols and names used by some modern publishers such as Doubleday.
 Selected Aldine editions
- 1495–1498 Aristotle
- 1499 Hypnerotomachia Poliphili
- 1501 Francesco Petrarca, Le cose volgari
- 1502 Dante
- 1502 Herodotus
- 1502 Sophocles
- 1503 Florilegium diversorum epigrammatum in septem libros
- 1504 and 1517 Homer
- 1513 Plato
- 1513 Pindar (editio princeps), Callimachus' Hymns, Dionysius Periegetes, Lycophron (editio princeps)
- 1514 Institutionum grammaticarum libri quatuor
- 1514 Virgil (the first of the italic type pocket octavo editions)
- 1528 Baldassare Castiglione, The Book of the Courtier (first printing)
One of the more substantial collections of Aldine Press books and Aldine imitations in North America is at the Harold B. Lee library on the campus of Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.
- "Hand Bookbindings". Princeton University Library. 2004. Archived from the original on 27 November 2009. Retrieved 12 January 2010.
- Eisenstein, E. (1979). The Printing Press as an Agent of Change. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
- A Guide to Special Collections (1999)
- See this link: http://net.lib.byu.edu/aldine/aldWel.html.
 Further reading
- Renouard, A. A. (1834) Annales de l'imprimerie des Aldes, ou l'histoire des trois Manuce et de leurs éditions; 3ème édition. Paris (the standard bibliography)
- Fletcher, H. G., III (1988) New Aldine Studies: documentary essays on the life and work of Aldus Manutius. San Francisco
- Lowry, Martin (1984) Il mondo di Aldo Manuzio – Affari e cultura della Venezia del Rinascimento. Roma: Il Veltro, pp. 441 (Translated from: The World of Aldus Manutius: Business and Scholarship in Renaissance Venice, Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1979). II edizione, con aggiornamento bibliografico, Roma 2000.
- Soave, Fiammetta (1991) Bibliotheca Aldina: a collection of one hundred publications of Aldus Pius Manutius and the Aldine Press, including some valuable Aldine conterfeits [sic]. Rome: F. Soave
- Davies, Martin (1995) Aldus Manutius: printer and publisher of Renaissance Venice. London: British Library
- Febvre, L. & Martin, H. (2001) La nascita del libro. Roma-Bari: Laterza
- Braida, L. (2003) Stampa e cultura in Europa. Roma-Bari: Laterza