MINUZIANO, ALESSANDRO - End of Cicero’s Philippics
and M.’s printed edition (1498) - Copy in the Vatican Library.
Barberini (ms. Orient. 1). It was first used by the learned
G. Morini, an Oratorian, who has the distinction of producing the first
edition of the Samaritan Pentateuch.
BIBL.: P. Gassendi, Viri illustris... Peyresc Vita, Parigi
1641, pp. 327, 383 and passim: C. F. Achard, s. V. in *Dictionnaire
de la Provence*, III, p. 529 ff.; Ph. T. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I.
MINUZIANO, ALESSANDRO. — Humanist, editor, and printer, born in 1450, died in 1522. In 1491 he went to Milan, where he immediately established relations with the printer brothers La Signerre, Ulderico Scinzenzeler, the Fratelli da Legnano, and others, with the aim of publishing classical, historical, and literary works. He was one of the first Italian editors in the sense of selecting texts, preparing them, and promoting their printing. The wording «ex officina Minutiana» in some editions of Latin classics suggests that he also had his own printing press.
Among his editions, the following should be remembered: Opera omnia by Cicero (Milan, F.lli La Signerre, 1498–99, in 4 volumes and the first complete edition); Historia... di Milano by Bernardino Corio (ibid., F.lli da Legnano, 1503), famous for its beautiful and large woodcuts; Tacti quae extant... (ibid., «ex Officina Minutiana», 1517), an edition prepared by Andrea Alciato and counterfeited from the preceding Roman edition of 1515, prepared by Filippo Beroaldo. This gave rise to a trial in which M. acknowledged his wrongs, was acquitted, and was authorized to print by a brief of Leone X.
BIBL.: E. G. Vogel, Alexander Minutianus' Druche, in Serapeum, 13 (1852), no. 10, pp. 145–53, and no. 11, pp. 168–72; A. Guillon, Notice sur l'édition princeps du recueil des oeuvres de Cicéron, et sur Alexandre Minutianus auteur de cette édition, in Bibliographie de la France, 1820, pp. 317–20, 331–36, 348–52 (this Notice occasioned a response by Petit-Radel, ibid., pp. 406–408, and observations by J. Ch. Brunet, ibid., pp. 569–70); G. Fumagalli, in Lexicon typographicum Italiae, Florence 1905, pp. 217–19.
Giannetto Avanti
