L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2020 www.italoamericano.org 44 L'Italo-Americano the US there are over 50,000 incunabula. "What are the stories? We are reconstruct- ing their links to European cultural heritage and tracing their journeys from Europe to the United States -- when, h o w , a n d w h y , " r e v e a l s Dondi. Her studies in progress are reported in a book enti- tled Printing R-Evolution 1450-1500 - Fifty Years that Changed Europe released by Marsilio Editori, an indepen- dent publishing house rooted in Venice. Also, an exhibition on the research was held at the Correr Museum. From its upper window, visitors can enjoy the most breathtaking view of St. Mark Square. Venice was a liberal city inhabited by people from all walks of life. They did not know what censorship was. Foreign and different faith communities lived in its calli, callette, rughe, salizada, and campi (all Venetian street types) and thrived. There were Greeks and Armenians w h o f l e d O t t o m a n r u l e , Sephardic Jews who escaped p e r s e c u t i o n i n S p a i n a n d P o r t u g a l , t h e A s h k e n a z i c Jews from Central Europe -- all part of the driving force of the publishing industry. It needs to be said that "from its beginning, mem- bers of the Church were very actively involved with the n e w m e d i u m , " P r o f e s s o r D o n d i h i g h l i g h t s . " T h e y a c t e d a s b e n e f a c t o r s a n d sponsors, as editors and cor- rectors of liturgical texts, m a t h e m a t i c s , l o g i c , a s authors of lay as well as reli- gious works, as translators, as printers, and finally, as book users and book owners. The preservation of thou- sands of incunabula for pos- terity has to be credited in large part to the libraries of religious institutions." V e n i c e w a s t h e A x i s Mundi, the labyrinth and the navel of the print scene that gave a home to dozens of printing shops locked in cut- throat competition. "Printers came to Venice from all over Europe to try out the new profession: many succeeded b u t o t h e r s d i d n o t , " s a y s Dondi. But who were they? Dondi says they were "people who were familiar with the tech- nology (makers of jewelry, watches, and coins) or knew the product – books – and its u s e r s ( s c h o o l t e a c h e r s , priests, and booksellers)". Typographers in Venice joined some scuole, or con- fraternities, to develop con- tacts and do business. "The e a r l i e s t f o r e i g n p r i n t e r s joined the Scuola Piccola di San Girolamo, a confraterni- t y w h e r e m o s t f o r e i g n traders were also members," D o n d i e x p l a i n s . " I n t h e 'Mariegola', the statutes of the confraternity together with the list of members, the names of early printers and booksellers can be found, for example, Nicolaus Jenson." I n t h e 1 4 8 0 s m o s t o f t h e Italian typographers were m e m b e r s o f t h e n e w l y founded Scuola Grande di San Rocco. A l s o w o m e n " w r o t e , chose, illustrated, and proof- read the text, set the type, operated the press, ran the business." But how was the business o r g a n i z e d ? " T h e p r i n t e r coordinated the work of sev- eral people," Dondi explains. "Inside the printing shop, t h e r e w e r e c o m p o s i t o r s , b e a t e r s , a n d p u l l e r s . Outside, scholars and book- sellers suggested new titles based on their knowledge of the market; businessmen invested money for the pur- chase of the paper stock; finally, traders distributed the books nationally and internationally." T h e t w o m o s t n o t e d Venetian printers who wield- ed great influence on book production and design were Nicolaus Jenson, an amaz- ing typographer who perfect- ed the Roman typeface in 1470, and Aldus Manutius, p r o b a b l y t h e m o s t f a m o u s p r i n t e r o f h i s time. Manutius was born in the P a p a l S t a t e s i n 1 4 4 9 a n d trained as a humanist schol- ar. Before taking up printing in Venice, he had worked as a tutor in aristocratic house- holds. In 1494, he started the Aldine Press, his printing Bottega, and his celebrated editions. The first dated book in his catalog was the Erotemata of t h e G r e e k g r a m m a r i a n Constantine Lascaris. The Aldine Press, in its start-up phase, focused on Greek and Latin lexicons and grammar manuals. He published the complete works of Aristotle, many other philosophers, and his friend Erasmus, a Dutch humanist, theologian, and reformer. With the book o n t h e L e t t e r s o f S t . Catherine of Siena released in 1500, he experimented w i t h a t y p e f a c e h e j u s t invented through the words "Jesu dolce Jesu amore." In the second phase of his b u s i n e s s , h e e x t e n s i v e l y introduced his innovations in t y p o g r a p h y a n d n e w approaches to publishing. To fill the page economically, Aldus printed entire books in t h e i t a l i c t y p e f a c e designed from scratch for h i m b y F r a n c e s c o G r i f f o . With the letters slanting to the right by resembling a handwritten style, the cursive font could take up less space, save paper, and reduce the c o s t o f p r o d u c t i o n . T h e Venetian Senate gave Aldus exclusive right to the use of italics, a patent confirmed by three successive Popes. But despite warning on his title pages that those who made unauthorized copies would b e e x c o m m u n i c a t e d , h i s books were widely counter- f e i t e d . A l d u s w a r n e d h i s clients to be aware of French counterfeiters from Lyon who circulated books also filled with grammar errors and typos, and made with low-quality paper. In 1501, Manutius was the first in the world to release pocket-sized editions, libelli portatiles intended for a growing class of new readers produced by the humanist movement. They were clas- sics printed in octavo format, books "that could be held in t h e h a n d a n d l e a r n e d b y heart (not to speak of being read) by everyone," as he later wrote. They all bore Aldus Manutius' printer's m a r k , a d o l p h i n c u r l e d a r o u n d a n a n c h o r , w h i c h meant to illustrate a classical Latin adage and oxymoron that became Aldus' motto: Festina Lente or make haste slowly. As well, Aldus regularized the use of the orthographic punctuation, the full stop, the colon, and the comma and invented a new punctua- tion mark, the semicolon, to separate items in a compli- cated list. Stronger than a comma and weaker than a period, semicolon was adopt- ed by Italian scholars when t h e y h a d t o s e p a r a t e t w o i n d e p e n d e n t b u t r e l a t e d clauses. Slowly it made its w a y n o r t h t o t h e r e s t o f Europe and into the New World. D o n d i p o i n t s o u t t h a t "Aldus Manutius' role as a promoter of European schol- arship is justly recognized, but cannot be taken as repre- sentative of the social mobili- t y a n d c h a n g e s t h a t t h e Venetian press, and printing in general, brought about to European society. Quantity, not just quality, ultimately made the difference." The subjects and topics c o v e r e d b y e a r l y p r i n t e d books were copious. "They covered a variety of subjects, not just religion or classics but also, in large numbers, m a t t e r s o f c o n t e m p o r a r y i n t e r e s t f o r t h e n e e d s o f e v e r y d a y l i f e , " s a y s t h e Italian professor from Oxford University. "They were also economically accessible." Dondi has examined the account book of a Venetian bookseller at the time, the Z o r n a l e o f t h e V e n e t i a n b o o k s e l l e r F r a n c e s c o d e Madiis. "Zornale is the finan- cial account of the printed b o o k s h e s o l d d u r i n g t h e p e r i o d 1 4 8 4 - 8 8 , " D o n d i explains. "This extraordinary document lists the sale of 25,000 printed books with their price, just 15 years after printing was introduced into the city of Venice." " I n l a t e 1 5 t h - c e n t u r y Venice, people used soldi, lire, ducats," explains Dondi. "20 soldi made 1 lira; 6 lire and 4 soldi (or 124 soldi) made 1 ducat." Certainly, we cannot com- pare today's prices with those back then, but we can try to understand them. For example, De Madiis s o l d 6 5 9 c o p i e s o f t h e Psalteriolo da Puti, a gram- m a r b o o k f o r c h i l d r e n t o teach them how to read. Cost per copy, 4 soldi. "For 4 soldi you could buy a chicken or "an excellent eel," explains Dondi. Among the cheapest and best-selling was Donado, a popular Latin grammar book. It sold 258 copies at 5 soldi each. "For 5 soldi you could buy a 1 kg of beef and 5 soldi was less than half the daily wage of a bottom of the scale laborer in the construc- tion business (12-17 soldi)," Dondi remarks. The most expensive edi- tion was Glosa Ordinaria, a Roman civil law book. This w a s v e r y p r i c e y i n d e e d : "1,240 soldi or 10 ducats but 1,628 pages in six large vol- umes!" De Madiis could sell only 2 copies of the entire collection. "For 10 ducats you could buy 10 pairs of leather b o o t s o r a v e r y b e a u t i f u l manuscript book of hours for Christian devotion." At the end of the 15th cen- tury, Leonardo wrote down a list of 38 Italian printed books he owned. "The works are the same as those sold by De Madiis in Venice," says Dondi. "If Leonardo had the same books that many other p e o p l e w e r e b u y i n g , a n d b o o k - b u y e r s w e r e n o t a l l geniuses (like him), then we can say that Leonardo had an ordinary library." LIFESTYLE FASHION FOOD ARTS ADVICE Continued from page 42 Detailed of a text printed by Aldus Manutius (Photo: Wikicommons)

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