Jacopo Sannazaro’s The Piscatory Eclogues and Aldus Manutius
The Special Collections Department is featuring articles written by our student staff in conjunction with our current exhibit, The Compleat Angler: And Other Meditations on the Art and Philosophy of Fishing, 15th Century to the Present, which is currently located in Hillman Library, Third Floor, Room 363, Special Collections Department, University of Pittsburgh.
Fig. 1. Frontispiece portrait of Jacopo Sannazaro and Title Page. From: Sannazaro, Jacopo. 1570. Iacobi Sannazarii Opera Omnia. Latine Scripta. Venetiis: Ex Bibliotheca Aldina.
One of the earliest published pieces of literature on the topic of fishing is Jacopo Sannazaro’s work The Piscatory Eclogues. This text set the stage for many later books on fishing, such as Izaak Walton’s Compleat Angler, bringing the life of fishermen into the forefront of scholarly discussion. In writing the eclogues, Sannazaro transformed a traditional literary genre, the pastoral eclogue, into a new form that focused on fishermen living near bodies of water instead of the shepherds in the rural settings of the pastoral.
The pastoral eclogue is a type of literature that has been around since Theocritus’ Idylls, which was published before 250 B.C. Around that time, Virgil also wrote his own Eclogues in the same style. While the technique fell out of popularity after that, it resurfaced during the Italian Renaissance (“Aldus Manutius” 2016). The pastoral eclogue is unique from other literary genres in that it incorporates monologue, dialogue, narrative action, and more, all within the same composition. Additionally, it makes extensive use of allusion to convey meaning (Kennedy 1983). These qualities allow writers a freedom that cannot be found in other literary styles.
Fig. 2. Svedomsky, Pavel. 1892. Naples. Oil on canvas. Private Collection. Available from: The Athenaeum
Because of these features, Sannazaro was drawn to the eclogue. It is clear that he was directly influenced by Virgil, as The Piscatory Eclogues are parallel in style and structure to Virgil’s (Hankins 2009). However, Sannazaro felt that fishing would make better subject matter than shepherding, and he changed the traditional aspects of the form to reflect that. Pastoral eclogues are typically set in a land called “Arcadia,” which is an idyllic wilderness setting, distantly influenced by Italian landscape. To make his narratives more relatable to contemporary Italian readers, Sannazaro chose to use real places as the background of his eclogues, setting The Piscatory Eclogues in actual towns along the shoreline of Naples, Italy (Hankins 2009). Another decision Sannazaro made was to publish the verses in Latin. Though he wrote other works in the vernacular Italian, he used Latin for his eclogues to create a bridge between classical literature and contemporary Italy (Kennedy 1983). These literary choices were successful in attracting readers, and when The Piscatory Eclogues were published in Naples in 1526, they were well received throughout all of Italy. They even made their way into other parts of Europe, becoming popular in countries like Germany and Portugal (Mustard 1914).
The University of Pittsburgh’s library system has several editions of this text, including English translations and versions published within the past century. The most important edition, which was published in 1570 by Aldus Manutius in Venice, can be found in Archives & Special Collections at Hillman Library. Our copy was donated by William M. Darlington, and he noted in an inscription in the front of the book that it is “One of the Earliest books on the Art of Angling Printed by Aldus.” While the age of the volume is noteworthy on its own, the fact that Aldus Manutius published it is even more significant.
Fig. 3. Portrait of Aldus Manutius. From: Grendler, Paul F. 1995. Books and Schools in the Italian Renaissance. Aldershot, Hampshire, Great Britain: Variorum.
Aldus Manutius, one of the most famous printers ever, worked in Italy during the Renaissance, printing books for Italian readers. He began his career as a Humanist teacher, focusing on Latin classics, though he was also familiar with ancient Greek texts. When he was forty, he decided that it was more important to live honestly rather than to endlessly search for truth. He formed a partnership with two wealthy Venetians and opened his own printing company, the Aldine Press. In choosing what to publish, he concentrated on appealing to Humanists. Humanists preferred to study ancient volumes in their original language and context without contemporary commentary added by translators. Because he spoke Greek, Manutius was able to publish texts from writers like Aristotle in their original language, a phenomenon that was previously unheard of. Manutius attained great success with this approach, and he continued to revolutionize the publishing industry with his versions of Latin classics. He printed them on smaller paper without additional comments. Additionally, he created the Aldine Italic and Roman type fonts. With these changes, he was able to produce small octavo-sized books that people could easily carry with them (Grendler 1995).
Fig. 4 and 5. New Aldine type fonts. From: Sannazaro, Jacopo. 1570. Iacobi Sannazarii Opera Omnia. Latine Scripta. Venetiis: Ex Bibliotheca Aldina.
All publishers of the time had their own characteristic devices that were printed in their books to establish their authority. Manutius created the Aldine Dolphin and Anchor Device, which features an anchor with a dolphin wrapped around it. The motto he chose for this device was “Festina lente,” which means “make haste slowly” (Englade). The image fits this motto well, as the dolphin is a fast animal, made slower by the anchor it holds onto. All of the works published by the Aldine Press contained this device. It can be seen on both the title page and the tail-piece device of the 1570 edition of Iacobi Sannazarii Opera Omnia. Latine Scripta, which includes The Piscatory Eclogues. Even after the dissolution of the Aldine Press, the device has remained connected to printing. Other famous publishers over time, including William Pickering in London and Doubleday in the United States, have appropriated the device to use in their own books.
Fig. 6. Aldine Dolphin and Anchor Device. From: Sannazaro, Jacopo. 1570. Iacobi Sannazarii Opera Omnia. Latine Scripta. Venetiis: Ex Bibliotheca Aldina.
Throughout Manutius’ career, he chose the books he published carefully, only printing what he thought would be profitable. In addition to Greek and Latin classics, he also published contemporary texts, both in Latin and Italian. The books he chose usually sold well, and he was able to turn the company over to his brother-in-law, son, and grandson before his death in 1515. They continued to operate successfully, but without Aldus’ charm, they eventually lost collaborators and closed the press in 1598 (Grendler 1995). Despite this, the Aldine Press continues to be seen as an important influence in the history of book printing. Manutius’ choices regarding language, book size, and font revolutionized the publishing world, paving the way for books to become more affordable and accessible to the general public.
The 1570 copy of The Piscatory Eclogues held in Archives & Special Collections is representative of a typical Aldine book. Though it was printed after Aldus’ death, it retains the characteristics that made him famous. For example, it is small in size and printed in Italic and Roman fonts. People who bought it would have been able to carry it around with them, enjoying Sannazaro’s fishing poems in the same Italy where they were set.
-Cassie Frank, graduate student employee
Works Cited
“Aldus Manutius.” 2016. Encyclopedia Brittanica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Aldus-Manutius.
Englade, Emilio. Accessed August 31, 2017. “Dolphin-and-Anchor device of Aldine Press, ca. 1500.” Harry Ransom Center: The University of Texas at Austin. http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/exhibitions/permanent/windows/southeast/aldine_press.html.
Grendler, Paul F. 1995. Books and Schools in the Italian Renaissance. Aldershot, Hampshire, Great Britain: Variorum.
Hankins, James, ed. 2009. Sannazaro: Latin Poetry. Translated by Michael C. J. Putnam. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
Kennedy, William J. 1983. Jacopo Sannazaro and the Uses of Pastoral. Hanover and London: University Press of New England.
Mustard, Wilfred P., ed. 1914. The Piscatory Eclogues of Jacopo Sannazaro. Baltimore: The John Hopkins Press.
Sannazaro, Jacopo. 1570. Iacobi Sannazarii Opera Omnia. Latine Scripta. Venetiis: Ex Bibliotheca Aldina.
Svedomsky, Pavel. 1892. Naples. Oil on canvas. Private Collection. Available from: The Athenaeum, http://www.the-athenaeum.org/art/full.php?ID=217351# (accessed September 14, 2017).
