Print Culture in Renaissance Italy
The Editor and the Vernacular Text, 1470–1600

Examines the Renaissance production and reception of works by Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio and others, and explores the impact of new printing and editing methods on Renaissance culture.

Brian Richardson (Author)

9780521893022, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 3 June 2002

284 pages
22.9 x 15.4 x 1.6 cm, 0.456 kg

"This exceedingly rich book documents the growing importance of the editor or correctore of vernacular texts in (late) fifteenth and sixteenth-century Venice and Florence....This book is essential reading for Renaissance Scholars....it documents an exciting time in the history of western culture and provides an excellent reminder that all printed texts are the product of delicate negotiations between the integrity of the text and the needs of the reader." John Mulryan, Cithara

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 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 works by earlier writers including Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio and Ariosto, as well as popular contemporary works of entertainment. In so doing he sheds light on the impact of the new printing and editing methods on Renaissance culture, including the standardisation of vernacular Italian and its spread to new readers and writers, the establishment of new standards in textual criticism, and the increasing rivalry between the two cities on which this study is chiefly focused, Venice and Florence.

1. Printers, authors and the rise of the editor
2. Editors and their methods
3. Humanists, friars and others: editing in Venice and Florence, 1470–1500
4. Bembo and his influence, 1501–1530
5. Venetian editors and 'the grammatical norm', 1501–1530
6. Standardisation and scholarship: editing in Florence, 1501–1530
7. Towards a wider readership: editing in Venice, 1531–1545
8. The editor triumphant: editing in Venice, 1546–1560
9. In search of a cultural identity: editing in Florence, 1531–1560
10. Piety and elegance: editing in Venice, 1561–1600
11. 'A true and living image': editing in Florence, 1561–1600
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: c 1500 to c 1800 [DSBD]