Reshaping the Early Modern Book World:
Competition, Protection, Consumption

International Conference 30-31 May & 1 June 2022

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As printing with moveable type quickly spread in Europe, everything about the production, distribution and consumption of books changed radically within decades. Old and new clients had to be persuaded of their need for books, now available in ever-greater quantities; large print runs and increasing competition forced printers to seek ever-cheaper production methods and materials; technical innovators and publishers of new text editions sought protection for their products from governments, which in turn tried to regain control over the increasingly elusive circulation of information, knowledge and opinions that undermined traditional power structures. Compared to manuscript production, the printing business was very capital-intensive, marked by a slow return on investment, and it required the development of trade routes, specialised fairs and advertising strategies. Publishers and booksellers developed innovative techniques and refined their know-how to create new tastes and to satisfy new demands from the public.

For about a century, the hand-press book as a commodity underwent slow but dramatic changes. Books changed hands more often transnationally amongst wholesalers settling debt and credit on account. Information about books and prices circulated amongst booksellers in letters, printed advertisements or catalogues. Important printing enterprises developed systems and tools to come to grips with regional and international competition. Printers and publishers deployed strategies to win a place in the market: for instance, by focussing on niche markets, collaboration or product diversification. The book world underwent a deep transformation, and so had society.

This international conference marks the conclusion of the EMoBookTrade project funded by the European Research Council (ADG GA 694476) and directed by Professor Angela Nuovo. At the core of this five-year project are two powerful and innovative tools which facilitate, on the one hand, the study of the privilege system in Venice from the introduction of printing in the Serenissima until 1603, and on the other hand, the prices of books in Europe. This information is organised in two related and fully searchable databases, available online to all researchers.

As printing with moveable type quickly spread in Europe, everything about the production, distribution and consumption of books changed radically within decades. Old and new clients had to be persuaded of their need for books, now available in ever-greater quantities; large print runs and increasing competition forced printers to seek ever-cheaper production methods and materials; technical innovators and publishers of new text editions sought protection for their products from governments, which in turn tried to regain control over the increasingly elusive circulation of information, knowledge and opinions that undermined traditional power structures. Compared to manuscript production, the printing business was very capital-intensive, marked by a slow return on investment, and it required the development of trade routes, specialised fairs and advertising strategies. Publishers and booksellers developed innovative techniques and refined their know-how to create new tastes and to satisfy new demands from the public.

For about a century, the hand-press book as a commodity underwent slow but dramatic changes. Books changed hands more often transnationally amongst wholesalers settling debt and credit on account. Information about books and prices circulated amongst booksellers in letters, printed advertisements or catalogues. Important printing enterprises developed systems and tools to come to grips with regional and international competition. Printers and publishers deployed strategies to win a place in the market: for instance, by focussing on niche markets, collaboration or product diversification. The book world underwent a deep transformation, and so had society.

This international conference marks the conclusion of the EMoBookTrade project funded by the European Research Council (ADG GA 694476) and directed by Professor Angela Nuovo. At the core of this five-year project are two powerful and innovative tools which facilitate, on the one hand, the study of the privilege system in Venice from the introduction of printing in the Serenissima until 1603, and on the other hand, the prices of books in Europe. This information is organised in two related and fully searchable databases, available online to all researchers.

Conference organizers

Prof. Angela Nuovo, Università degli studi di Milano
Dr. Saskia Limbach, University of Göttingen
Dr. Andrea Ottone, Università degli studi di Milano
Dr. Joran Proot, Cultura Fonds, Dilbeek

Scientific advisory board

Prof. Angela Nuovo, Università degli studi di Milano
Prof. Christine Bénévent, École nationale des chartes, Paris
Prof. Lodovica Braida, Università degli studi di Milano
Prof. Hilario Casado Alonso, Universidad de Valladolid
Prof. Giuseppe De Luca, Università degli studi di Milano
Prof. Dr. Markus A. Denzel, University of Leipzig
Prof. Cristina Dondi, University of Oxford
Prof. Ian Maclean, University of Oxford and University of St Andrews
Prof. Germano Maifreda, Università degli studi di Milano
Prof. Andrew Pettegree, University of St Andrews
Prof. Andrea Zannini, Università degli studi di Udine

Programme

On 30-31 May 2022, conference sessions will be held at the Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, Sala Polifunzionale, viale Pasubio 5, 20154 Milano. Advance registration is requested. No fee.

Monday, 30 May 2022

Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli
Sala Polifunzionale
viale Pasubio 5, 20154 Milano

10:00 am 

Registration

10:45

Welcoming Remarks

Carlo Fiorio – Università di Milano – Head of the Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods
Paola Castellucci – Sapienza Università di Roma – President of SISSB
Angela Nuovo – Università di Milano – EMoBookTrade

11:00

Panel 1 – The economy of the book trade

Chair: Giuseppe De Luca – Università di Milano
Angela Nuovo & Francesca De Battisti – Università di Milano – EMoBookTrade
A statistical analysis of book prices in Venice (1586–1600)

Joran Proot – Cultura Fonds, Dilbeek & Francesco Ammannati – Università di Firenze
Book prices from the Officina Plantiniana in a comparative perspective (1581–1631)

Andrea Ottone – Università di Milano – EMoBookTrade
Renaissance publishers, market risks and empiric methods of assessment

12:30

Lunch Break

14:00

Panel 2 – Practitioners’ Perspectives I

Chair: Stefano Gulizia – Università di Milano – TACITROOTS
Adinel Ciprian Dincă – Babes-Bolyai University
Johannes Bibliopola (c. 1500–1524), the first bookseller in Transylvania

Saskia Limbach – University of Göttingen
Paying for Frankfurt books: Sigmund Feyerabend and the prices of his legal publications

Mona Garloff – University of Innsbruck
How to sell used books? Second-hand book trade in early 18th-century Central Europe

15:30

Break

15:45

Panel 3 – Practitioners’ Perspectives II

Chair: Geri Della Rocca de Candal – University of Oxford

Paul Schweitzer-Martin – University of Munich
Incunabula production and trade in a nutshell: The case study of Speyer

Kevin M. Stevens – University of Nevada, Reno
Deciphering the Antoni-de Franceschi partnership in Milan (c. 1588–1590)

Andreas P. Bassett – University of Washington, Seattle
The evolution of playbook titles in the early modern London book trade (1576–1660)

Tuesday, 31 May 2022

Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli
Sala Polifunzionale
viale Pasubio 5, 20154 Milano

9:30

Panel 4 – Niche markets I

Chair: Germano Maifreda – Università di Milano

Claudia Rosenzweig – Bar-Ilan University
Paratexts in old Yiddish printing in Italy

Kristof Selleslach – Museum Plantin-Moretus
Book pricing at the Officina Plantiniana. The 1640 folio edition of the Missale Romanum

Pawel Maciejko – Johns Hopkins University
Rabbis and Jesuits: On the Prague edition of the Babylonian Talmud

11:00

Coffee Break

11:30

Panel 5 – Niche markets II

Chair: Saskia Limbach – University of Göttingen

Julia Smith – University of Edinburgh
Colour and the consumption of early modern books: Printer-commissioned colouring in illustrated printed books from Nuremberg

Doris Gruber – Austrian Academy of Science
German-language travelogues and the book market. Interconnections and specializations

Gloria Moorman – Università di Padova – RISK
Geography at the service of the state: Blaeu, Coronelli, and atlas publication in Amsterdam and Venice (c. 1660–1700)

13:00 

Lunch Break

14:30

Panel 6 – Book privileges

Chair: Angela Nuovo – Università di Milano

Erika Squassina – Università di Milano – EMoBookTrade
Tailored protection for the printing industry in Venice: the privileges system (1560-1580)

Julia Dreyer – University of Münster
Florentine printing privileges in favour of printers and authors during the Duchy and the Grand Duchy of the Medici family

Marius Buning – University of Oslo
Crystallizing public opinion: Printing privileges in the Dutch Republic

16:00

Break

16:30

Panel 7 – Authorship and market regulation

Chair: Renaud Milazzo – Università di Milano

Florine Lévecque-Stankiewicz – Bibliothèque Mazarine
Diffuser et contrôler: L’activité éditoriale de Pierre Gringore (c. 1500–1540)

Manuela Bragagnolo – Università di Trento
Authority and authorship of normative books in early modern times: The ‘invention’ of the author of Martin Azpilcueta’s Manual de confessores

On 1 June 2022, conference sessions will be held at the Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense, via Brera 28, 20121 Milano. Advance registration is requested. No fee.

Wednesday, 1 June 2022

Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense
via Brera 28, 20121 Milano

9:30

Welcoming Remarks

Marzia Pontone, PhD – Director of the Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense

Panel 8 – Consumers’ perspectives

Chair: Joran Proot – Cultura Fonds, Dilbeek

Yelda Nasifoglu – University of Oxford
Collecting mathematical books in early modern Britain

Giulia Giannini & Stefano Gulizia – Università di Milano – TACITROOTS
Viral science: The Accademia del Cimento as print culture (c. 1660–1680)

Alberto José Campillo Pardo – Universidad de Sevilla; Universidad del Rosario (Colombia)
The consumption of culture: Circulation of specialized libraries in the Spanish Empire during the 18th century

10:30

Break

11:00

Panel 9 – Old books and digital technologies

Chair: Flavia Bruni – VeDPH

John Craig – Simon Fraser University
Creating a database of books purchased by English parishes (1536–1642)

Gerhard Lauer – University of Mainz
Computational book studies: Challenges and opportunities

12:00

Closing remarks

Saskia Limbach – University of Göttingen
Andrea Ottone – Università di Milano

Locations

Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli

Sala Polifunzionale

viale Pasubio 5, 20154 Milano

On 30-31 May 2022 conference sessions will be held in Sala Polifunzionale, Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, viale Pasubio 5, 20154 Milano.

Get directions

Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense

via Brera 28, 20121 Milano

On 1 June 2022 conference sessions will be held at the Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense, via Brera 28, 20121 Milano.

Get directions

Registration

Sponsors

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