Bound in Venice

November 4, 2013
Italian author Magno guides us through 15th and 16th century Venice, a cultural and economic world capital, where the book as we understand it today was born. Ostensibly a survey of the life of publisher Aldus Manutius, the Michelangelo of printing, the man who established contemporary typefaces, championed the semi-colon, and conceived of reading for pleasureâ"the history of publishing is divided" Magno declares, "into before Mantius and after." The book veers wildly at the half, away from a sharp illustration of a luminous historical moment embodied by a captivating personality who oversaw it all, to a survey of the great books produced at this time, subdivided by category: Jewish publishing and the printing history of the Talmud, the world's first printed Koran, the medical book trade and even the antecedent to our author-as-celebrity, Petro Aretino. The writing is accessible, but the factual information is dense and the structure seems to dissolve into after thought as its subject grows more complex. Magno's is a wonderful if sometimes baffling book for enthusiasts of type, binding, publishing and the history of the physical artifact of the book.