ALDUS MANUTIUS ROMANUS died, as has been already stated, in the month of April, 1515. On his death, his father-in-law, Andrea d'Asola, with whom he had been some time in partnership, took upon himself the conduct of the great printing establishment at Venice. In this, during the minority of Aldus's children, from 1516 to 1529, he was assisted by his own two sons, Francesco and Frederico; or, according to some authorities, by the Torresani, his brothers. On the decease of Asola, in the latter year, the office was closed, and it remained so till 1533, when it was re-opened by the sons of Aldus and Asola, in partnership. Their works thus produced, are dated in ædibus hæredam Aldi Manutii Romani et Andrea Asolani Soceri.

The direction of the establishment was now confided to Paul Manutius, the third son of Aldus, who was born at Venice in

1512, and is considered to have been in no respect inferior to his father in learning or in typographical skill.

For some time after his father's death, Paul Manutius had lived with his mother and the other members of their family, at Asola; but he was removed to Venice when very young; and in that city he enjoyed every possible advantage of education, under Bembo,† Sadolet, Bonamicus, Reginald Pole; § and more particularly under Ram

* Vide pp. 2, 52, 100, and 117.

† Peter Bembo, a noble Venetian, poet, historian, and cardinal, was born in 1470. He was secretary to Pope Leo X., and was promoted to be bishop of Bergamos, and a cardinal by Paul III. He wrote a History of Venice. Cardinal Bembo died in 1547.

James Sadolet, also a poet, rhetorician, philosopher, and cardinal, was born at Modena in 1477. On the election of Leo X. to the pontificate, he was appointed one of his secretaries, and soon afterwards made bishop of Carpentras. From the vicissitudes of war, he was several times compelled to quit Rome, leaving his palace to the ravages of the soldiery. Clement VII. restored him to his office; and Paul III. recalled him to Rome, raised him to the purple, and employed him on various diplomatique missions. Cardinal Sadolet died at the age of 70. § Cardinal Reginald Pole, an eminent statesman, and archbishop of Canterbury, in the reign of Queen Mary, was a younger son of

bertus, and Gaspar Contarinus, who had been his father's friends.

The youthful Paul pursued his studies with such zeal and assiduity, that he injured his health. On the death of Asola, he suffered still more in mind from the family disputes which arose as to the partition of the estates of his father and his maternal grandfather, amongst himself and the other heirs. deed, it appears to have been owing to the disagreement between him and his uncles, respecting the management of the printing business, that the office was so long closed.

In

In 1533, Paul having then reached the age of twenty-one, the concern was recommenced in their names, and for the common benefit of the heirs of Aldus and of Andrea d'Asola. Paul Manutius, however, was the sole manager.

The productions of this firm were very numerous, till 1536, when

"On

Sir Richard Pole, by Margaret, Countess of Salisbury, daughter of George, Duke of Clarence, brother to Edward IV. He " was born at Stourton Castle, in Staffordshire, in 1530. He was educated at Sheen Monastery, and Magdalen College, Oxford; and after obtaining preferment in the church, went to Italy, where he long resided." During his stay, he lived in the strictest intimacy with Sadolet, Bembo, and other celebrated persons of that country. his return to England, he opposed the divorce of Henry VIII., from Catharine of Aragon, in such terms that the king drove him from his presence, and never saw him more! He again left England, was made a cardinal, and very nearly obtained the popedom on the death of Paul III." He was actually chosen pope at midnight by the conclave, and sent for to come and be admitted. He desired that his admission might be deferred till the morning, as it was not a work of darkness. Upon this message, the cardinals, without any farther ceremony, proceeded to another election, and chose the Cardinal de Monte, who, before he left the conclave, bestowed a hat upon a servant, who looked after his monkey!" When Mary ascended the throne, Pole returned to England as legate, in which capacity he absolved the parliament from the sin of heresy, and reconciled the nation to the Holy See. The very day after the burning of Cranmer, the cardinal was appointed archbishop of Canterbury; soon after which, he was elected chancellor of both universities; and he survived the queen but one day, Nov. 15, 1558."-Vide Granger, Maunder, and other authorities.

misunderstandings again arose, and terminated only in a dissolution of partnership in 1540.

From that period, Paul Manutius conducted the printing alone for himself and his brothers. The works from the Aldine press, executed subsequently to the year 1540, are usually subscribed Apud Aldi Filius, or Apud Paulum Manutium Aldi Filium.

Manutius was now indefatigable. All the more distinguished writings of Greece having been given to the world from the Aldine press, he determined on producing new editions of the works of the best Latin authors. Passionately devoted to the style of Cicero, his first performance was, the Treatise on Oratory, by that writer. This was about the year 1533. In the course of the same year, he printed Cicero's Familiar Letters; also, the Fifth Decade of Livy; Il Cortegiano, by Castiglione ; Il Petrarca; and Pontani Carmina, tom. I. In 1534, he printed a great number of other Latin and Italian books.

The first Greek work that Paul Manutius printed, was Themistius; which was followed by Isocrates and Aetius Amidenus.

The reputation and skill which Manutius thus acquired, obtained for him, in 1535, an invitation to Rome, with the promise of a lucrative appointment. However, not experiencing a reception so satisfactory and cordial as he had anticipated, he returned to Venice, and resumed his literary studies and typographical pursuits. At that time, Manutius was far from opulent; consequently, he undertook the laborious office of education, and received into his house twelve young men, for three years. Two of these pupils of his, were Matthew Senaraga, who translated Cicero's Letters to Atticus, into Italian; and Paul Contarinus.

In 1538, blending relaxation with business, Manutius made an excursion for the of examining some rare manupurpose scripts that were understood to exist in certain old libraries; particularly in the library of the Franciscan Monastery at Cesena. The manuscripts in that depository were those which had been left by Malatista

Novellas.

About this time, Manutius, whose fame had been constantly on the increase, was invited to the chair of Professor of Eloquence at Venice; and to the same honourable post, vacated by the death of Bona

micus, at Padua. Ill health, however, united with his devotion to the typographic art, prevented him from availing himself of these gratifying testimonies of his genius and talent.

After a second journey to Rome, in 1546, Manutius married Margarita, the daughter of Jerome Odonus. The first offspring of this union was a son, Aldus, his successor. He had two other sons, who died young; and a daughter, who is often mentioned in his Letters, and who was married in 1573.

At Venice, in the year 1556, an academy was established at the house of Frederic Badoarus, one of the senators. This institution consisted of one hundred members, whose object was the promotion of every class of literature and science. A printingoffice was attached to the academy, for the original productions of its members, and also for good editions of established works. Manutius was appointed to preside over this establishment, which he fitted up with new types from his own founts. Dominick Bevilacqua and several other skilful printers were employed by him. In the years 1558 and 1559, fifteen different works were printed here; all admirably correct and beautiful.*

Manutius was the Professor of Eloquence in this academy; which, however, was abolished, by a public decree of the Senate, in August, 1562. The loyalty of Badoarus was suspected; and state reasons are thought to have caused the dissolution of the academy.

In 1561, Manutius was invited to Rome, by Pius IV., to superintend the printingoffice of the Vatican, and to print an edition of the Holy Scriptures, and also of the Fathers of the Church. The Pope himself was at the expense of this undertaking, and of the removal of Manutius's family and printing materials from Venice to Rome. Moreover, he allowed him a yearly salary of at least 500 crowns.

During his residence at Rome, the presses which Paul Manutius had left at Venice were not inactive; though his two brothers, Manutio and Antonio, by no means cordially co-operated with his labours. Antonio, in particular, caused him much anxiety. Having been a second time banished from Venice, Antonio established, by Paul's as

* For a catalogue of these productions, vide RENOUARD'S Annales de l'Imprimiere des Aldes, tome I.

sistance, a printing-office at Bologna, with the Aldine device. A few works issued thence in the years 1556 and 1557.

Paul Manutius continued his typographical labours at Rome with great éclát, till the death of his patron, Pius IV. Becoming dissatisfied, and afflicted with illness, he left Rome in 1570; and, after visiting several places of note in Italy, he returned to Venice, in May, 1572.

Soon afterwards, however, he went back to Rome, where he was greatly cheered by the kindness of the Pope, who evinced much liberality towards him, without the exaction of any onerous duty.

Still the victim of sickness, his health, in September, 1573, began to decline rapidly; and, on the 6th of April, in the following year, he expired in the arms of his son, who had just arrived at Rome from Venice. Manutius had lived in general esteem, and his death was universally regretted.

Notwithstanding the variety and extent of his typographical concerns, he found leisure to compose numerous works, by which he is distinguished as one of the most judicious critics and elegant Latin writers of modern times. Amongst his works may particularly be mentioned, his valuable Commentaries on Cicero, his Treatise De Curia Romana, and some Treatises on Roman Antiquities; all of which are distinguished by the purity and beauty of their style. So studious was he of the attainment of Ciceronian elegance, that he is said to have spent whole months in revising and polishing a single letter.

It can hardly be requisite to add, that all the productions of his press are of great value, both for accuracy and beauty.

Paul Manutius was succeeded by his only surviving son, Aldus the younger, the third of the great Triumvirate, of whom we have yet to speak.

FRESH and verdant is the grass; the cowslip and primrose decorate the surface of the earth; the trees, with their mild and tender green, are in beauteous foliage; grateful to the eye, and fragrant to the olfactory sense, laburnums and lilacs enrich our gardens and shrubberies; the cookoo's note is blyther than it was, and the whole feathered creation is in full life and activity.

""Tis May! the flowery meads along
Glad children dance and sing;
And still the burthen of the song

Is, 'welcome, welcome spring!'
E'en sorrow scarcely wakes to grieve,
So cheerly laughs the rill;
While merrily, from morn to eve,
The cuckoo singeth still,

Cuckoo! cuckoo !

Mid the wood, by the flood,

Sings the merry cuckoo."*

But the May-day sports of our fathers— the innocent, yet merry dance round the May-pole-the joyous and athletic exercises and games of our ancestors, which at once gave sinew to their manly frames, and rendered their spirits buoyant as the airwhere are they? "Lost! lost! lost!" Even Jack-in-the-green, and the milk-maid's garland, and the annual revels of our little sooty friends, have nearly all been swept away by the philosophical besom of the

march of intellect.

In all ages, and in all nations, what strange anomalies are found! May is confessedly the mother of love; yet the Romans, from religious feelings, fought against nature, and interdicted marriage, in this beautiful and all-exhilarating month.

Several important anniversaries occur at this season. It was on the 1st of May, 1707, that the Union of Scotland with England was consummated-now 132 years since. Happy and prosperous was the event for both countries. The 1st of May is also the anniversary of the day on which, thirtytwo years ago, the slave trade in the West Indies was proscribed by the British ParliaThe Toleration Act was passed on

ment.

*Minstrel Melodies.

the 24th of May, 1689; and on the 9th of May, 1828, the Corporation and Test Act was repealed.

On the 1st of May, the British Museum closes for a week; after which, it is open on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, from ten o'clock till four, until the 7th of September. The new reading rooms, upon an extended scale, and entered from Montague Place, Russell Square, on the north side of the building, are open from nine till seven every day during the same period.

On the first Monday in May, which falls this year on the 6th, the eastern division of the National Gallery, at Charing Cross, will be opened for the Royal Academy's annual exhibition of paintings, sculpture, &c.

This is the seventy-first of the Academy's exhibitions-the third at the National Gallery. We should rejoice to see the Royal Academy with an edifice of its own, and independent of the State for the pitiful accommodation, or rather want of accommodation, which it now possesses.

On the 8th of the month, that noble institution, the Literary Fund, holds and celebrates its fiftieth, or jubilee anniversary, at the Freemasons' Tavern; his Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge in the chair.

The Sons of the Clergy hold their anniversary on the 3rd of May. On the 17th the Radcliffe Library, will have been founded 126 years.

On the 3rd of May, 1495, Columbus discovered Jamaica. On the 4th, in 1799, just forty years ago, a glorious triumph for the arms of Britain occurred in India. Seringapatam, the capital of Tippoo Saib, was carried by storm; and the vast treasures of the eastern chief were, with the exception of a small portion, divided amongst the conquerors. In illustration and commemoration of this event, Sir Robert Ker Porter (brother of the distinguished sisters, Jane and Anna Maria Porter, and her Majesty's Consul-General at the Caraccas,) painted the finest semi-panoramic picture ever exhibited.

On the 10th of this month, forty-three years ago, Buonaparte, by one of the most