flowers, and plumes, all softly and magically tinted, seem like some
book out of King Oberon's library in fairyland, rather than the
productions of a mortal press. The pictures in Blake's "prophetic
books," and even his illustrations to "Job," show an imagination
more heavily weighted by the technical difficulties of drawing.

The next class of rare books is composed of works from the famous
presses of the Aldi and the Elzevirs. Other presses have, perhaps,
done work as good, but Estienne, the Giunta, and Plantin, are
comparatively neglected, while the taste for the performances of
Baskerville and Foulis is not very eager. A safe judgment about
Aldines and Elzevirs is the gift of years and of long experience.
In this place it is only possible to say a few words on a wide
subject. The founder of the Aldine press, Aldus Pius Manutius, was
born about 1450, and died at Venice in 1514. He was a man of
careful and profound learning, and was deeply interested in Greek
studies, then encouraged by the arrival in Italy of many educated
Greeks and Cretans. Only four Greek authors had as yet been printed
in Italy, when (1495) Aldus established his press at Venice.
Theocritus, Homer, AEsop, and Isocrates, probably in very limited
editions, were in the hands of students. The purpose of Aldus was
to put Greek and Latin works, beautifully printed in a convenient
shape, within the reach of all the world. His reform was the
introduction of books at once cheap, studiously correct, and
convenient in actual use. It was in 1498 that he first adopted the
small octavo size, and in his "Virgil" of 1501, he introduced the
type called Aldine or Italic. The letters were united as in
writing, and the type is said to have been cut by Francesco da
Bologna, better known as Francia, in imitation of the hand of
Petrarch. For full information about Aldus and his descendants and