MANUTIUS, PAULUS

born June 12, 1512, Venice died April 6, 1574, Rome Italian Paolo Manuzio Renaissance printer, third son of Aldus Manutius, founder of the Aldine Press in Venice. After the death of Aldus in 1515, his brothers-in-law, the Asolani, carried on the Aldine Press until 1533, when Paulus took it over. The Asolani attempted the duties of editing and dispensed with the services of competent collaborators. As a result, some of their editions, notably their Aeschylus of 1518, are very poor. Paulus, determined to remedy this situation, separated from his uncles in 1540. He was himself an excellent Latinist, especially dedicated to Cicero; he issued corrected editions of Cicero's letters and orations, his own Latin version of Demosthenes (1554), his epistles in a Ciceronian style (1560), and his four treatises on Roman antiquities. From 1558 he directed a press for the Accademia Veneta, but this had to close down for lack of funds in 1561, when Paulus was invited by Pius IV to Rome and was offered a yearly stipend of 500 ducats. In Rome Paulus printed about 50 books before 1571, dividing the profits with the Apostolic Camera.