TABOO: THE ACTUAL MODERNIST AESTHETIC, MADE REAL A ...

The library of the dukes of Milan was carried off to Blois by the
French conquerors in 1499: and in 1502 the famous collection of
the Montefeltro dukes of Urbino was looted by the troops of
Cesare Borgia. It is not surprising that Aldus‘ prefaces are full of
flames, war, the loss of friends and the destruction of books: not
only scholars but entire cultural centres were being swept away.
(55)
1503‘s martial backdrop and the threat it figured to Aldus becomes even more
fraught when we learn that he was facing a very public accusation of theft from
Hieronymous Soncinus himself, ―Soncino‖ claimed that it was he who had paid for
Bembo‘s (Francesco da Balogna) Greek punch-cutting services.
Aldus does not explicitly put forward the Hebrew Introductio as
his own work, and in fact in 1510 the famous Jewish printer
Gershom [Hieronymous] Soncino laid violent claim to it as his
own youthful composition which someone (understand Aldus) had
corruptly printed. It was this same Soncino who in dedicating his
1503 italic Petrarch mentioned that he had obtained the services of
the famous punchcutter Messr Francesco da Balogna, who had cut
all the types that Aldus ever printed with. (55)
The dire implications of Canto XXX‘s letter, which Pound uses to conclude his
Italian Renaissance Cantos, are made curious by its relaxed, convivial, and conversational
tone. Some speculation is in order: either this letter comes before Soncinus‘s rancorous
split with Aldus over recognition of the making of Greek and Hebrew founts or it is an
unmatchable example of the printers‘ calumnious strategizing within the ―treacherous
rage and rivalry‖ of Venetian proto-capitalism. Soncinus is here soliciting help from
Malatesta against Aldus; or, even perhaps, Pound is transcribing a letter of introduction
being sent from Soncinus to the Imperial army on the speculation of the suit he was about
to wage against Aldus. If this were the case, then its unfortunate interception by the
Malatestine (re: Ferrarese) faction – deftly recorded in Pound‘s mentioning of the origin
of the manuscripts he was quoting: ―and as for text we have taken it…from a codex once
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