Intellectual and Technological Change Case Study: Printing in Venice

Intellectual and Technological

ChangeCase Study: Printing in Venice

“... books have

multiplied to such an

extent that everyone

can study, and even

more so because the

majority are printed in

our mother tongue: and

so the kittens have

opened their eyes so

that everyone can see

and understand”

[Leonardo Fioravanti, Dello

specchio di scientia universale

(The Mirror of Universal

Knowledge), Venice 1564]

An early example of music printing

Johannes de Sacrobosco and Regiomontanus, Sphaera Mundi ([Venice:] Erhard Ratdolt, 1485)

Text

Matteo Pagan, The True Description of the Great City of Cairo (Venice, 1549)

Pietro Durante, The book of battles and of love called Leandra... (Venice, 1522)

Apuleius in the vernacular

(Venice, 1518)

Very useful book for learning how to read quickly ... (Perugia, 1521)

Eustachio Celebrino,

This is the way

to cure the French disease

[syphilis]…(Venice, 1526)

Garden of very rare secrets, useful and pleasing…

(Bologna, C16th) – an example of a ‘book of secrets’

The News about Brescia, with a Song in Praise of the King of France and of Saint Mark. Newly Printed. (Venice, ca. 1516)

Vernacular Bible (Venice, 1538)

Veronica Franco Pietro Aretino

“swarms of new books”

“rubbish written by all and

sundry”

(Erasmus complaining about

the state of the printing

industry, 1527)

• 1559 first Roman

Index of Prohibited

Books

The Index of Prohibited Books, 1564

Galileo Galilei, Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems (Florence, 1632)