House of Aldus, 1502. Historical artwork of Aldus Manutius (1450-1515) using his printing press. Aldus began his career as a humanist teacher and became well known before going to Venice around 1490. In 1493 Aldus established a printing house together with Andrea Torresani da Asolo. The revolutionary impact of this is apparent with the elegant and fashionable octavo (portable book) of Dante's Divine Comedy (1502). It encouraged the public to engage with the classics directly and gave rise, for the first time in the Italian tradition, to a distinguished group of women poets. Also in 1502, Aldus founded an academy of Hellenists under the title of the New Academy. Illustration published in 1895.