Print culture in Renaissance Italy
Subtitle: the editor and the vernacular text, 1470-1600
By: Brian Richardson.
Series: Cambridge studies in publishing and printing history
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 1994
Place of publication: Cambridge [England]; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 265
Subjects: Printing -- Italy -- History -- 16th century.; Printing -- Italy -- History -- Origin and antecedents.; Early printed books -- Italy -- Venice -- Bibliography.; Early printed books -- Italy -- Florence -- Bibliography.; Incunabula -- Italy -- Bibliography.; Transmission of texts -- Italy.; Renaissance -- Italy.; Editing -- History.; Italy -- Imprints.
Genres: Bibliography.
Description: The emergence of print in late fifteenth-century Italy gave a crucial new importance to the editors of texts, who determined the form in which texts from the Middle Ages to their own day would be read, and who could strongly influence the interpretation and status of texts by adding introductory material or commentary. Brian Richardson here examines the Renaissance circulation and reception of texts by writers including Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio and Ariosto, as well as popular works of entertainment.

In so doing he sheds light on the impact of the new printing and editing methods on Renaissance culture, including the standardization of vernacular Italian and its spread to new readers and writers, the establishment of new standards in textual criticism, and the cultural rivalry between the two cities on which this study is chiefly focused, Venice and Florence.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 235-241) and indexes.