The exhibition will present the story of the man who invented the modern book and the very concept of publishing, making Venice the international capital of printing. It will describe how Aldo’s project and his precious books were woven into a new art in Venice, nourished by publication of the Greek and Latin classics, through absolute masterpieces by Giorgione, Carpaccio, Giovanni Bellini, Cima da Conegliano, Titian, Lorenzo Lotto and Pietro Lombardo.

From 19 March to 19 June 2016, the exhibition Aldo Manuzio. Il rinascimento di Venezia at the Gallerie dell’Accademia, curated by Guido Beltramini, Davide Gasparotto and Giulio Manieri Elia, will retrace a unique and unrepeatable period in the history of European and Western culture, during which the book proved itself capable of changing the world. This gave rise to the Renaissance in Venice, a vibrant city - with more than 150,000 inhabitants in the sixteenth century it was one of the richest and most densely populated on the continent - where every kind of artistic language was able to find its most effective expression in the space of just a few decades. In the sixteenth century Venice won and definitively asserted its role as hinge between East and West, moving from being a simple platform for commercial trade to a mixing pot of cultures, traditions and knowledge.