Gli anni bui di Aldo Manuzio

This essay presents a new reading of the sources on the mysterious first decades of Aldus Manutius’ life. What emerges is a gradual advancement in the humanist’s ‘curriculum studiorum’ from his early years in Rome to his longer stay in Ferrara and his subsequent appointment as a young tutor (‘iuvenis magister’) at Carpi. Some not yet sufficiently explored documents have been saved from oblivion and a handful of insidious commonplaces still widespread in the current bibliography are also debased.