In The World of Aldus Manutius: Business and Scholarship in Renaissance Venice (1979), Martin Lowry referred to the difficulties of evaluating the Venetian printer's impact in Spain, and concluded that “the eye of faith longs to find a connection: but the sad truth is that we have only loose ends” (286). One of those “loose ends” is exemplified by Demetrius Ducas, who, after coediting Rhetores Graeci and Plutarch's Moralia for the Aldine press in 1508 and 1509, respectively, went to Spain to occupy the chair of Greek at the University of Alcalá de Henares in the following year. Under the direction of Cardinal Jiménez de Cisneros, Ducas was one of the editors of the Complutensian Polyglot Bible (1514–17) and, as Martín Abad implied in his 1991 study of Alcalá printers in the sixteenth century, the Cretan scholar might have advocated that the Septuagint be printed with a Greek font inspired in the Aldine types. Subsequently, other isolated examples of Aldine influence in Spain have been suggested, such as the impact of Aldine editorial practices on Antonio de Nebrija's commented edition of select poems of Prudentius (1512) or the role of the Aldine design in shaping the layout of Lucan's Pharsalia, printed by Jacobo Cromberger in Seville in 1528.

The eleven-essay collection Aldo Manuzio en la España del Renacimiento is the first comprehensive, and successful, attempt to set the record straight. Rial Costas argues that we need to expand the concept of Aldus's impact by incorporating unexplored themes, such as the reception of the Aldine textual model, the networks of sixteenth-century Spanish scholars, and the new publishing paradigm established by Aldus's heirs. In other words, these essays aim to explore the role that Aldine editions played in Spain textually and materially. However, while there is plenty of evidence in this collection that Aldine editions of classical texts, particularly in Greek, were read by Spanish scholars and writers—predominantly Hellenists connected to the Universities of Salamanca and Alcalá—the case for a material influence is hard to make. Admittedly, bibliophile scholars like Hurtado de Mendoza regarded the Aldine editions as beautiful objects. However, none of these essays challenges the well-established view that the great printing innovations of Aldus, such as the elegant Greek handwriting-like font and the editions of classics in portable octavos in italics, did not have any substantial impact on the Spanish press. Truly, Spanish printers could not compete with their European counterparts in the production of Latin and Greek classics, and therefore focused on the publications of works in the vernacular.

Regarding the role of humanist networks in expanding the Aldine influence in Spain, Roland Béhar sets the stage by reexamining how Andrea Navagero, the Venetian ambassador in Granada and an apologist of the Aldine editions, shaped the vernacular poetics of Juan Boscán and Garcilaso de la Vega. Béhar suggests, for instance, that the literary sources used by Garcilaso closely reflect the books listed in the 1513 Aldine catalogue of portable octavos. More textually specific is Dávila Pérez's essay on the influence of Aldine editions in the studia humanitatis, a curriculum partly built by translating Greek texts into Latin. Nevertheless, the star essay in this collection is Domingo Malvadi's study on the presence of Aldine editions in the libraries of three Spanish humanists: Hernán Núnez de Guzmán, Juan Páez de Castro, and Diego de Covarrubias y Leiva. Through the evidence of letters, library inventories, and marginalia, Malvadi builds a convincing case about the relevance of the Aldine editions for both the university curriculum and the philological endeavors of these scholars. While Ducas collaborated with the printer of the Polyglot Bible, Guillén de Brocar, in the publication of Greek texts, Guzmán, like other scholars, still demanded Aldine editions, arranging their purchase for the library of the University of Salamanca. Philologically, Aldus's five-volume set of the works of Aristotle (1495–98) was enormously influential, some of its texts being used as one of the models for future editions.

In the next essay, Escobar explores the attempts of sixteenth-century Spanish humanists to publish an edition and translation of Aristotle's opera omnia, a project launched by Cisneros, taken over by Hurtado de Mendoza during the Council of Trent, but never materialized. Additionally, the influence of Aldus had an impact on the education of Phillip II. Sánchez Molero argues that the well-attested presence of Aldine editions in the library of the Spanish king reinforces the thesis that he received a truly humanistic education before the religious intolerance of the second half of the sixteenth century. Other topics in this collection include the impact of Aldine bindings, the Aldine editions of Greek works in Hurtado de Mendoza's library, the gradual use of the Aldine semicolon by Spanish printers, and the Aldine books in the library of the Cathedral of Córdoba.

To conclude: these essays are an important contribution to book history in sixteenth-century Spain, and are a must read for anyone interested in intellectual history, reception studies, and material culture.