Living between the 15th and 16th century, Aldo Manuzio, friend of Pietro Bembo and Erasmus of Rotterdam, was one of the greatest innovators in the field of typography, perfecting punctuation and introducing italic characters as well as the octavo format, the ancestor of modern paperbacks. All of these features, known as "Aldine editions," still constitute one of the most important bequeathals in the history of printed book.

Thanks to the mental and cultural openness of most of the patriarchy and nobility of the Serenissima, Venice was transformed, beginning in the second half of the 15th century, into one of the most lively and important centers in the field of humanities.

Since 1501, Manuzio used the shape of a dolphin around an anchor as a distinctive brand, quoting the Latin motto “festina lente”, meaning "hasten slowly." This emblem was featured on an ancient Roman coin which Pietro Bembo gave him.

The edition of Aristotle’s works, published between 1495 and 1498, was the first to ever include every text written by the Greek author.