Aldo Manuzio: Il rinascimento di Venezia

Fantastic exhibition at the Accademia in Venice looking at the life and work of Aldo Manuzio, a 15th century publisher and humanist.

I had thought this show might be quite dry but it was a fascinating insight into early publishing and put it into the context of the time. I loved one commentary which described Venice as the “Silicon Valley” of the Renaissance comparing the changes brought about by printing to the internet. Aldo started by spotting a niche market with the growth in humanism for re-edited versions of the Greek texts in an affordable form. In turn these new versions of the texts revived ideas and lead to painters being compared to Apelles.

He introduced the idea of small portable books which were easy to carry and created the idea of reading as a quiet, private, intimate pastime. The exhibition ended with a wonderful series of portraits of people with these small books, showing that they were fashionable items and held as a sign of learning.

He also invented italics type which he introduced to replicate handwriting and which was a thinner text which meant you could get more letters on a page and therefore save money!

Best all though where the wonderful works of art used in the show to show some of the themes shown both in the books and that the books themselves introduced and encouraged. Giorgionne’s Tempest was there, the Reliquary cross presented to Venice by Cardinal Bessanon shown in a picture by Bellini in the National Gallery and a wonderful Tullio Lombardo portrait bust.

Closes on 31 July 2016.

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