Plato (ca. 428–ca. 348 BCE)
Aldus Manutius (ca. 1451–1515) and Marcus Musurus (ca. 1470–1517), editors
First printed edition of Plato’s complete works in Greek: Hapanta ta tou Platonos. / Omnia Platonis Opera.
Venice, Italy: Aldus Manutius, 1513
Rare Book Division
First printed edition of Plato’s complete works in Greek: Hapanta ta tou Platonos. / Omnia Platonis Opera.
In 1513 the Venetian scholar-printer Aldus Manutius issued the first printed edition of Plato’s works in Greek. The language had presented a challenge to printers accustomed to the Roman alphabet, but Aldus mastered it, publishing more than 30 volumes in Greek. Though rare now, his Aldine Press editions originally appeared in hundreds of copies, ensuring the survival of the texts for future readers.
Aldus, whose works are readily recognizable by the printer’s mark of a dolphin and an anchor, pioneered a number of advancements in the printing world: through his press, he introduced the use of italic type and popularized the portable octavo volume (akin to the size of the modern paperback). Perhaps most notably, his skillful translations of works by Aristotle, Aristophanes, Euripides, Herodotus, and Plutarch, among others, helped fire the imaginations of Renaissance-era writers and thinkers.
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