Book Description

On 6 February 2015, the Warburg Institute marked the 500th anniversary of Aldus Manutius's death with a one-day colloquium on his extraordinary legacy. Rather than examining his own output, which has already received a vast amount of scholarly attention, the focus was on far less studied topics related to his later fame and reputation. This book presents revised versions of six papers from the colloquium, together with three additional contributions. The nine papers, which explore how the notion of 'Aldine books' has changed over 500 years in Europe and America, are arranged in three sections: the Aldine press after Aldus; private Aldine collections in early modern Europe; and Aldine book trade and collecting from the nineteenth century to the present. Also included in the volume is a catalogue of the exhibition 'Collecting the Renaissance: The Aldine Press (1494-1598)', organized in conjunction with the colloquium and displayed in the Treasures Galley of the British Library. Addressing a wide readership of scholars, booksellers and collectors, The Afterlife of Aldus aims to stimulate further research in areas which have not been sufficiently investigated, despite their importance for a comprehensive understanding of the long-lasting fortuna of Aldus and his publications. The conference, the exhibition and this volume have received generous financial support from the Bibliographical Society, CERL and Bernard Quartich Ltd.