on the evidence of the chain-lines and the water-mark technically a
quarto, the volume on account of its unusual size was doubtless
printed like a folio on half sheets. Renouard, p. 55. Firmin-Didot,
p. 317.

Plutarch's _Moralia_ belongs to that imposing series of first editions
of the Greek classics which among all the services of Aldus Manutius to
the revival of learning are perhaps his best title to enduring fame.
When he set up his press in 1495 five in all, and but one, Homer, of the
first rank, had been printed. When he died twenty years later his first
editions outnumbered those of all his contemporaries put together, and
the rank was even more significant than the number, for among them were
included Aristotle, Plato, Thucydides, Herodotus, Aristophanes,
Sophocles, Euripides, Pindar and Demosthenes. The Plutarch was printed
from MSS. still preserved in the library of St. Mark.

The Greek type of Aldus was a new departure, based on the cursive or
business handwriting of his day in distinction from the older book-hand
which had served as the model for the first Greek fonts. It gained
immediate popularity and for more than two hundred years, either
directly or through fonts based upon it, dominated the Greek printing
of Europe. At length, mainly because of the ligatures and contractions,
it was supplanted by type of more open and regular forms.

In 1508 Aldus took as partner his father-in-law, Andrea Torresano
d'Asola, a Venetian printer who in 1480 had taken over the business of
Nicolas Jenson. The imprint which had hitherto been _apud Aldum_ or _in
aedibus Aldi_ now became _in aedibus Aldi et Andreae soceri_. After the
death of Aldus in 1515 the press was conducted without change of name by
the surviving partner until his own death in 1529.