Description
Book SynopsisSpecialist Markets in the Early Modern Book World, edited by Richard Kirwan and Sophie Mullins, investigates an underexplored yet important facet of early modern book production. Bringing together 19 detailed case studies, this volume considers and reconstructs the characteristics of specialist book production in the early modern period. In particular it explores the motives that led to specialisation ranging from the desire for profit on the part of risk-taking, entrepreneurial individuals or family firms to the more propagandist or missionising aims of corporate groups who subsidised production, often without regard for profit. The book also explores the economic and personal pressures and perils that accompanied specialist production, which was often a risk-laden enterprise that could end in financial and social ruin.
Trade Review“In addition to illustrations and tables, the volume contains an index of mostly proper names. Altogether, it opens up various neglected strands of early printing history and should be read by anyone interested not merely in the early modern world of print, but also in book history and periodical studies more generally, as well as musicology.” Philipp Reisner, Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf. In: Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 48, No. 2 (2017), pp. 507-508.
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements List of Figures Notes on Contributors Introduction: The Risks, Rewards and Perils of Specialisation 1 Richard Kirwan Part 1. High Risk Speculation: The Cultivation of New Markets and Tastes 1 Tabloid Values: On the Trail of Europe’s First News Hound Andrew Pettegree 2 The Changing Landscape of the Competitive Nuremberg Print Trade: The Rise and Fall of Paulus Fürst (1608–1666) John Roger Paas 3 Networks of Printers and the Dissemination of News: The Case of Milan in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries Massimo Petta 4 New Books for a New Reading Public: Frankfurt “Melusine” Editions from the Press of Gülfferich, Han and Heirs Ursula Rautenberg 5 Exotic Knowledge as Commodity: De Bry’s Historia Indiae Orientalis Isabella Matauschek 6 The Unexpected Success of a Spanish Anatomy Book: Juan Valverde de Amusco’s Historia de la composicion del cuerpo humano (Rome, 1556), and its Many Later Editions Bjørn Okholm Skaarup Part 2. Demand and Supply: The Satisfaction of Existing Appetites 7 Poetic Gymnasium and Bibliographical Maze: Publishing Petrarch in Renaissance Venice Neil Harris 8 Poor Man’s Music? The Production of Song Pamphlets and Broadsheets in Sixteenth-Century Augsburg Amelie Roper 9 Printed Polyphonic Choirbooks for the Spanish Market Iain Fenlon 10 Publishing Military Books in the Low Countries and in Italy in the Early Seventeenth Century Nina Lamal 11 The Italian Job: John Wolfe, Giacomo Castelvetro and Printing Pietro Aretino Kate De Rycker 12 Early Printed Book Sale Catalogues from Seville: The Extension of the European Book Market into Mexico (1680–1689) Pedro Rueda Ramírez and Lluís Agustí Ruiz Part 3. ‘Print On-Demand’: Reader-led Specialisation 13 Printers of the Greek Classics and Market Distribution in the Sixteenth Century: The Case of France and the Low Countries Natasha Constantinidou 14 Books in Foreign Languages: Publishing in the Netherlands, 1500–1800 Rémi Mathis and Marie-Alice Mathis 15 Tutor to Prince Henry: Adam Newton and an International Court in the Making David McKitterick 16 “Quod Exemplaria vera habeant et correcta”: Concerning the Distribution and Purpose of the Pecia System Nikolaus Weichselbaumer 17 Profit, Patronage and the Cultural Politics of Music Printing in Eighteenth-Century Italy: The Family and Finances of Giuseppe Antonio Silvani Huub van der Linden Part 4. ‘Not For Profit’ Publication: Subsidised Specialisation 18 A Unique Seventeenth Century Rusyn Catechism and the Jesuit Connection Paul Shore 19 European Books for the Ottoman Market Zsuzsa Barbarics-Hermanik Index
