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Bookbinders are still among the least known of the professions of the early modern Italian book trade, partly because they rarely signed their work. However, they had an undeniably fundamental role in the production and circulation of books (both manuscript and printed) across Italy, and especially in Venice, where the book trade was a particularly lively industry. In recent years, there has been a strong interest in early modern material culture but little attention has been paid to bookbinders, who quite literally shaped the materiality of books. This article looks at the scarcity of documentary sources on Venetian bookbinders between 1450 and 1630 both as a methodological challenge and as evidence of their role in local production and consumption of books. It explores both the lack of sources documenting the professional lives of binders, and sources traditionally underused in book history, to highlight the social lives of binders. Evidence of binders' family finances, marriages, and social and geographical mobilities is used to identify their lower social standing in the early modern Venetian book world in comparison to booksellers, the overlapping of their professional roles, and the locations of binders' workshops in the topography of the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By analysing some letters sent in 1522 by the agent Bernardo d'Asola to the Venetian publisher and bookseller Giovanni Bartolomeo Gabiano, the article aims to reconstruct ways of organising book distribution at the Recanati and Lanciano fairs. The trade fairs, as evidenced by the letters, are particularly unfortunate because of the plague that affected various areas of Italy in 1522. An edition of Bernardo's significant letter of 17 October 1522 sent from Recanati follows the text. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Italy, book distribution plays a key role in identifying the mechanisms ruling the publishing industry. After having defined book as a ‘commodity’ and as a product of a complex organization where many players are involved, our aim is to identify exactly what the distribution process consists of and how it spreads in different activities. Investigating the role of distribution will help us to understand possible evolutions of the Italian everchanging panorama, in which small and medium-sized publishing houses resist and the main publishing groups are the protagonists of a continuous process of reorganization, triggered both by the changes taking place in the book market. Thanks to the data collected within the framework of a research involving publishers, distributors and other players involved in the book supply chain, we try to develop an overview identifying distribution models in our country today. An attempt is made to understand whether these models are able to interpret the changes taking place and respond to new demands involving the key roles related to books and their trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What are the conditions of the sales and purchases of translation rights in the Italian Market? The article summarizes and compares the results of two research studies conducted, respectively in 2003 and 2008 by the Italian Trade Commission as part of the initiatives planned in the Sector agreement stipulated among the Italian Ministry for Productive Activity, the Italian Publishing Association and the Italian Trade Commission. The objective is to optimize synergies between public and private activities in Italy in order to increase the export activity of the publishing industry sector. Both years the survey has been conducted by DOXA, a major Italian statistic research company. The researches focused on three fundamental variables: the geographical area in which a sales-purchases relationship is established, the genre of the books and the size of the companies involved by the phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on published and untapped sources, the article sets out to explore the cultural and material conditions of the book trade in Italy during the eighteenth century. Special concern is given to the import of French printed works and pamphlets as a means to diffuse the Enlightenment south of the Alps. The text does not address problems of authorial status, but provides a general assessment of the literary market and its impact on the reading habits of the elites. Critical and bibliographical information is also provided about the renewal of interest for the history of the book and reading in Italy since the 1980s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the Greek printing community in Venice, Italy, with particular emphasis on Nikolaos Glikis, who pioneered a dynasty of printers between 1670 and 1854. How Glikis got involved in the printing business; Information on the type of books printed by the house of Glikis; Illustration of the house device, a single bee which was a popular trademark among Venetian printers.

Focuses on the book publishing industry in Italy. Forecast of the increase in presence of English-language publishing in Europe especially in science and technology. Persistence in linguistic differences among European cultures; Expansion of Italian publishing and its integration into the European publishing arena.

Addresses issues related to the preservation of antiquities and books as of January 1965. Recovery of the historical items from the Boston Museum of the Society for the Preservation of New England; Efforts to prevent the collapse of the Leaning Tower of Pisa; Release of the book 'Bibliography of the Works of Montague Summers,' by Timothy d'Arch.

The article profiles Domenico Beccafumi, an Italian painter. Giulio Mancini, a Sienese physician, states that Beccafumi had been active as a designer of illustrations for books. However, there is no evidence that will support his statement. The essay of James Haar discusses about the Musical Fortunes of Ariosto in Florentine Society. Although the publication of the book shows the death of Beccafumi on 1551, there can be no doubt that the title page utilizes his figural ideas. Unexplained variations in the scale of the figures might also suggest that individual components were put together by someone of lesser intelligence.