A major international exhibition in Incheon (South Korea) at the Museum of World Writing Systems – 28/10/2025 – 25/1/2026) celebrates Aldo Manuzio’s publishing genius and his ability to revolutionise the art of typography, less than fifty years after its invention.
As part of its projects to promote Italian culture abroad, the National Central Library in Rome has been involved in designing and organising an exhibition dedicated to the great humanist and publisher, which will be hosted at the National Museum of World Writing Systems (MoW) in Incheon (South Korea) and will open on 28 October 2025. This prestigious institution launched the idea for the exhibition and invited the National Library of Rome to collaborate. The MoW’s mission is to collect, preserve and exhibit the different types of writing adopted by humanity over the centuries in order to “explore the value of the world’s writing systems that have shaped human civilisation”. In this cultural context, which hosts a permanent exhibition on almost sixty written language systems and shows a strong interest in European printing techniques and one of the most flourishing historical periods of our country, the idea matured to set up an exhibition that reconstructs the work of Aldo Manuzio, unanimously recognised as the absolute protagonist of the history of books and Humanism.
Thanks to the loan of precious printed copies preserved at the National Central Library in Rome and the Marciana National Library in Venice, it will be possible to retrace the publishing adventure of the Manuzio family (from Aldo to his son Paolo, to his grandson Aldo the Younger), the first dynasty of publishers, in a journey spanning almost a century: from the first editions published in Venice by Aldo the Elder in the 1490s to the last prints of the late 16th century published in Rome by Aldo the Younger, also passing through Paolo’s experience in the Stamperia del Popolo Romano.
Among the most representative works on display, visitors will be able to admire the Institutiones grammaticae of 1493, the only copy in the world of Aldo Manuzio’s Latin grammar, incomplete but enriched with autograph corrections; the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (1499), considered the most beautiful illustrated book of the Renaissance; the Epistole di Santa Caterina (1500), in which cursive script appears for the first time; the so-called Virgilio aldino (1501), the first book printed entirely in cursive and in pocket format; and other fundamental editions of Greek and Latin classics, works by Dante, Petrarch, Bembo, Castiglione, Lorenzo de’ Medici and many others.
Precious and richly decorated atlases of the time, illustrated incunabula, contemporary views of Rome and Venice, and extraordinary engravings complete the exhibition and contextualise the era of Aldo.
In the name of Aldo, Humanism and the Renaissance, and a shared love of books, a new bridge between East and West is being built, with the aim of expanding cultural exchanges between Italy and South Korea.
Link to the Incheon Museum website with the exhibition programme: