Tradurre (ma non solo) Aldo Manuzio

The aim of the present paper is to study Aldus Manutius’ prefaces (or dedicatory letters) to his editions of Greek classics from three different points of view. First, it examines Aldus’ typical custom (peculiar, however, to other humanists too) of expressing his thoughts quoting Greek and Latin authors in a cryptic way, thus leaving to the reader the (not always easy) task of discovering the quoted passages. Secondly, I inspect some examples of Aldus’ translations from Greek into Latin in order to evaluate his ability in this particular field. Thirdly, I underline Aldus’ fondness for proverbs and expressions of the same kind, some of which turn out to be extremely rare or up to this point completely unknown to us.