[1] As a young man, Paulus Manutius moved to Venice to get an education and was well received by his father's old friends Pietro Bembo, Ramberto, and Egnatio.

[citation needed] In 1561, Pope Pius IV invited him to Rome, offering him a yearly stipend of 500 ducats, and undertaking to establish and maintain his press there.

Paulus accepted the invitation, and spent the larger portion of his time, under three pontiffs, with varying fortunes, in the city of Rome.

The Vatican was eager to make effective use of the press to counter the growing influence of Protestant publications from beyond the Alps and his Roman editions for the Stamperia del Popolo Romano were mostly Latin works of theology and Biblical or patristic literature.

They included Reginald Pole's De Concilio and Reformatio Angliae (both 1562) and official publications from the Council of Trent such as the Canones et decreta (1564) the Index Librorum Prohibitorum (1564), the Catechismus (1566), and the Breviarium Romanum (1568).