"Aldus Manutius is the bibliophile’s bibliophile . . . Anyone who has sat in the park with a paperback has Aldus to thank for freeing the book from the library, the desk, the metal chain that sometimes bound books to shelves . . . Margolis’s biography – the first in English for forty years – was occasioned by the 500th anniversary of Aldus’s death, an anniversary that prompted a flurry of international exhibitions, catalogues and scholarship . . . Margolis’s book is an elegant visual biography that beautifully reproduces woodcuts, fonts, paintings, coins, letters, dedications, prefaces. It’s a cultural history of Aldus the myth, not Aldus the man. A stylish book, worthy of its stylish subject."

London Review of Books

"Valuable for scholars of the history of the book. . . . Recommended."

Choice

"Margolis’s study of Aldus Manutius is a hugely thoughtful, stimulating, and innovative reassessment of the career of this key Renaissance figure. He seeks to understand the persistent myths which have accreted around Aldus by recontextualizing them with unexpected and illuminating connections and through detailed and fresh analysis of certain phases and achievements in his life. The result is a vivid and persuasively argued view of Aldus’s cultural significance."

Stephen Parkin, curator of the British Library's Printed Heritage Collections, 1450–1600