successors, the work of M. Firmin Didot, ("Alde Manuce et
l'Hellenisme a Venise: Paris 1875)," and the Aldine annals of
Renouard, must be consulted. These two works are necessary to the
collector, who will otherwise be deceived by the misleading
assertions of the booksellers. As a rule, the volumes published in
the lifetime of Aldus Manutius are the most esteemed, and of these
the Aristotle, the first Homer, the Virgil, and the Ovid, are
perhaps most in demand. The earlier Aldines are consulted almost as
studiously as MSS. by modern editors of the classics.

Just as the house of Aldus waned and expired, that of the great
Dutch printers, the Elzevirs, began obscurely enough at Leyden in
1583. The Elzevirs were not, like Aldus, ripe scholars and men of
devotion to learning. Aldus laboured for the love of noble studies;
the Elzevirs were acute, and too often "smart" men of business. The
founder of the family was Louis (born at Louvain, 1540, died 1617).
But it was in the second and third generations that Bonaventura and
Abraham Elzevir began to publish at Leyden, their editions in small
duodecimo. Like Aldus, these Elzevirs aimed at producing books at
once handy, cheap, correct, and beautiful in execution. Their
adventure was a complete success. The Elzevirs did not, like Aldus,
surround themselves with the most learned scholars of their time.
Their famous literary adviser, Heinsius, was full of literary
jealousies, and kept students of his own calibre at a distance. The
classical editions of the Elzevirs, beautiful, but too small in type
for modern eyes, are anything but exquisitely correct. Their
editions of the contemporary. French authors, now classics
themselves, are lovely examples of skill in practical enterprise.
The Elzevirs treated the French authors much as American publishers
treat Englishmen. They stole right and left, but no one complained