Incunable: Single Leaf from Theophrastus' Peri Phyton Altion [On the Causes of Plants]

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Pages 133/134 of the edition of Peri Phyton Altion, or On the Causes of Plants, printed by Aldus Manutius in 15th century Venice. Theophrastus was a successor to Aristotle in the P eripatetic school at the Lyceum, and is often considered the father of botany, though his writings treated a variety of other scientific and philosophical topics. This particular work was influential in Renaissance science: it and his other major work on the subject, Enquiry into Plants, are among the most important botanical works of the period, and put forward the first mode of systematization within the discipline. Equally important (if not more so) is the publisher of this edition: Aldus Manutius was a very important printer and publisher in 15th century Venice, known for his Aldine Press, the invention of italicized type, influence of our modern usage of the semicolon and comma, and the marketing of inexpensive, portable books which presaged the popularity of modern paperbacks. His publisher's device, a dolphin wrapped around an anchor, was instantly popular and widely pirated. It is still used by Doubleday. During his career, he made a number of innovations related to binding and design, and his efforts to publish Greek classics (such as this one), as well as Latin and Italian ones, played no small role in the survival of many works to the modern day that would otherwise have been lost to history. Show more