Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 9.djvu/685

 Plato, Pindar, and othera

fttmoiu first edition of Aristotle, the first volume ap- peariDg in 1495, sad the remaining four volumea in 1497 and 149S. The work was dedicated by Aldus to his patron, Alberto Pio.

In 1499 AlduB married the daughter of Andrea Tor- resano, of Asola, a Venetian printer. The two printing establishments were then combined and after that date the names of Aldus and AHoUnus appeared on the title-pages of works from the Aldine Preaa. The device adopted by Aldus for the title-pagee of bis publicatjons was the dolphin sjid anchor, with the motto, FtsHna Icnte. Within the next few years first editions of Aristophanes, Tbucydides, Soph- ocles, Herodotus, Xenophon, Euripi- des, Demosthenes, produced at Venice. Be- sides these Greek authors, many Latin and Italian pub- lioatjons were put forth. In 1508 the groat Dutch scholar, Erasmus, wrent to Venice and assisted in the pub- licationofhis" Proverbs" by the Aldine Press. In order to promote the study of Greek literature and the pub- lication of Greek authors, Aldus, in 1500, founded the New Academy, or Aldine Academy of HclenistB. The members of this academy were required to speak Greek, and its rules were written in Greek. The or- ganixation comprised the tnost distinguished Greek scholars in Italy, who assisted Aldus in publishing the works of Greek and Ijitin authors. Under their di- rection the first Latin and Greek lexicon n'as given to the world.

Aldus was succeeded in the management of his great printing establishment by his son, Paulua Manutius (Paolo ftlariuiio), b. at Venice in 1512. Ho died in 1574. The work was then carried on by the latter's son, Aldus, until his death in 1597.

Stuonhh. Rrrmitmicr in Ilaly. II (London. 189S); Rwdt^ BiHQTV otClainral Scholarthip, II (Cambridge, 1908), OS i

Dtdot, Aldi Man<Kt <Paria, IK75). For chrc--' ' ""

AldioM, soo CuHlsTIE, Baiiograpli'ica. I (ISt

Eduund Burke.

Huuoiii, Albbs&ndbo. Italian poet and novelist,

b. at Milan. 7 Mareh, 178.J; d. 22 May, 1873. He was the son of Pietro Manzoni, the representative of an old feudal family of provincial landowners with estates near Lecco, and Ills wife Giulia, the daughter of Ce- sare Bcccaria, the famous writer on political economy. Donna Giulin was separated from her hiisliaml in 1702. After his school-days under the Bomaschi and the Bamabites, and a short stay at the University of Pavia, the poet grew up at Milan in mingled study and dissipation. In 1805, he joined his mother at Paris, where be imbibed Voltnirean principles, and l)ecaine intimate with Fauriol and others. At Milan, in I80S he married Henriettc-Louise Blondel, the daughter of a Swiss bunker, who was a Protestant, and when, in IHIO, she beenme a Catholic at Paris, Manzoni fol- lowed her back into the Church. Thenceforth his life was consecrated to religicai, patriotism, and literature. He settled at Milan, the neighbourliood of which he pmctically never loft, save for a visit to Tuscany in 1827 for the purpose of making himself better ao-

Juainted with what he regarded as the idea! form of the taliuti languace. His creative work was all done be- tween ISI'3 and 1827, ttft«r which he was mainly alwoiliwl in linguistic siudies. Am<mg liis chief fiwBds vKTe the Milanese romantic writer, Tonunasii

iSsqa.;

Grom. the Piedmontcm novelirt and statesiiuii, Mu- simo d'AMglio, who married his daughter, and tbs philosopher Autooio Rosmini, with whom he wai cloaeiy associated from 1827 until the lattor's death b 1855. An ardent patriot, Manzoni was in the fulkst sympathy with the movement for the liberation and unification of Italy. After the occupation erf Rome in 1870, he was made a Roman citisen; but, whether from old age or the religious difficulty, he never went to the Eternal City to take his seat as a sena- tor.

Manzoni'searliestpoem, "IlTrionfodella Uberti" (1801), on allegorical vision in the Petrarchian maimer of liberty triumphing over tyranny and superstition, is markedly influenced by Vinccnio Monti, whom be claims as his master and hails as the greatest poet of the age. This and the poems that followed, "In mode di Carlo Imbonati" (1806) and "Urania" (ISOO), belong to the classical school of which Monti was the recognized head, and show the influence like- wise of Panni and Alfieri. After hie conversion, Manxoni's art changed no less than his life, and he became the chief representative of the romantic school, the principles of which he defended later in his letter "Sul Romanticisrao" (182.3 and 1871). At the same time he desired to make bis work a literary defence of the Catholic Faith. He began a series of twelve "Inni Sacri" to celebrate the chief feasts of the Church, of which only five were written: "La Resurmiione" (1812), "II Nome di Maria" and "II Natale" (1813), "La Passione" (1815), "La Penteeoata" (1822). In these he brought back the old medieval simplicity into Italian religious poetrv, freeing it from the conven- tionalities that nad become traditional since the Renaissance. Two patriotic lyrics, celebrating the Milanese insurrection of 1814 and Hurat's proclama- tion of Italian nationality at Rimini in 1815, beloiigta the same epoch. His two tragedies, "IlContediCkr- magnola" (1820) and "L'Adelchi" (1822), are noble works, but somewhat lacking in true dramatic qual- ities; inspired in part by Schillerand Goethe, they pve expression to the

tions of the Ital- ians at a timewhen these seemed far off from realisa- tion. This poetic period closes with II Cinigue Mag- gie" (1822), an ode on the death of Napoleon which

ficpular Italian yno of the nine- teenth century.

"IPromessi Sposi ", Manzoni 's great masterpiece, was wYitten be- tween 1821 and 1825, and rewritten A""*"-".. M««,n.

in 1840. t^ir Walter Scott was not alone in ragardbif it as the ^atest romance of modern times. AgaiDSt the historical l>ackeround of the Spanish oppresauHi in Milan and the war of the Mantuan succwsion (1628- 1630), we have the story of the love and fortunes of two young peasants, and a whole series of inimitable por- traits of men and women painted with the art of a realist in the highest sense of the word. Eameatnett of purpose is combined with a peouUariy delicate humour and the author's moral intention, the applica- tion of Catholic moralitv to the study of Itfo and his- tory, is Imrmonized with his artistic instincts, and in no wise olitnidcs itsi-lf upon the reader. Amon^ minor prose works are the "Osaervaxioqi

Maiuoni's