Just as the Apple iPad is a new genre in the medium of computing, those little volumes, printed entirely in a cursive script, small enough to go in your pocket, opened up new avenues of an intimate relationship with the writings and authorities of the past. Indeed, what was an authority in the traditional folio format, became more like a personal friend in the 8vo format of the libri portatiles. It is the small and intimate format which helped to "unleash" the firm embrace of private ownership that our copy represents so vividly along its edges.
The small formats from Aldus Manutius were a great success. Printers in Lyon were quick to imitate his new style, his typeface, the characteristic design of his title pages. They went on to reprint his titles, to cash in on what must have been a seller's market. They soon understood that there was a benefit in not disclosing the place of fabrication, or in falsifying it. They created a wave of forged Aldines called Contrefacon. The book in question belongs to the genre of imitations of Aldine style, emphasized by the fact that neither place and name of publisher is part of the colophon. (But see here for a fault in our copy)