Panel Gabiano RSA 2023

Enterprise and Society, 2018

This article examines the evolution of cryptology as a business trait and a distinct state-controlled and -regulated profession in sixteenth-century Venice. It begins by briefly discussing the systematic development of cryptology in the Renaissance. Following an examination of the amateur use of codes and ciphers by members of the Venetian merchant and ruling class, and subsequently by members of all layers of Venetian society, the article moves on to discuss the professionalization of cryptology in sixteenth-century Venice. This was premised on specialist skills formation, a shared professional identity, and an emerging professional ethos. The article explores a potential link between the amateur use of cryptology, especially as it had been instigated by merchants in the form of merchant-style codes, and its professional use by the Venetian authorities. It also adds the profession of the cifrista—the professional cipher secretary—to the list of more “conventional” early modern professions.

Studi di storia, 2020

The ledger of the Venetian bookseller Francesco De Madiis, known as the Zornale (1484-88), which is currently being studied by Cristina Dondi and Neil Harris, offers a unique insight into the market value of the earliest printed books, of any sort. The essay offers the analysis of a variety of subjects, prices, sales, customers, and comparison with the cost of living in Renaissance Venice, the largest place of production and distribution in 15th-century Europe. The focus is first and foremost on the cheapest and most popular items, a production and trade enabled by the new technology.

Competition in the European Book Market, 2023

Angela Nuovo, Joran Proot Early modern book prices lost and found & Diane E. Booton List of abbreviations Francesco Ammannati & Joran Proot Book prices from the Officina Plantiniana in a comparative perspective (1586-1631) Saskia Limbach Sales and trading in Frankfurt Feyerabend's prices in perspective (1565-1597) Renaud Milazzo Le marché des livres juridiques à Lyon et à Venise au XVI e siècle Angela Nuovo & Francesca De Battisti The price of books in early modern Venice (1586-1600) A statistical analysis Francesco Ammannati Notes on Venetian monetary history from the medieval to the early modern era Andrea Ottone Renaissance publishers, market risks and empirical methods of assessment | A revised interpretation of Bernardo di Bernardo Giunti's 1600-1643 catalogue Erika Squassina The protection of the printing industry in Venice (1560-1580) Diane E. Booton An analysis of book prices in Paris The first bookseller's catalogue of Simon de Colines, c. 1540 Kevin M. Stevens Deciphering the Antoni/De Franceschi partnership in Milan (c.

The review of some false Latin inscriptions, attributed by Theodor Mommsen as originating from Veneto, allows us to reconstruct certain aspects of the antiques trade in this area, both in geographical and temporal terms. It is therefore possible to outline the role played by workshops, intermediaries and collectors in the distribution of these forged objects.

Catholic Historical Review, 2016

Early Printed Books as Material Objects. Proceedings of the Conference organized by the IFLA Rare Books and Manuscripts Section, Munich, 19-21 August 2009, ed. by Bettina Wagner and Marcia Reed, Berlin/New York, De Gruyter Saur, 2010, pp. 229-240

in Medieval merchants and money. Essays in honour of James L. Bolton, ed. by M. Allen – M. Davies, London, University of London – Institute of Historical Research, 2016, pp. 113-135

Linköping Electronic Conference Proceedings

The recent discovery, in the State Archives of Venice, of a 1621 final account from a committee of three noblemen charged to evaluate cipher services, sheds new light on the decline of cryptography in Venice in the subsequent centuries. The committee produced not only its evaluation, but also a new, interesting cipher, by the young Ottauian Medici. But, after Medici, stagnation and decline set in, until the final collapse of the Republic of Venice in 1797.

Religions, 2012

This paper examines a key tension in Renaissance culture as reflected in the origin and provenance of manuscript books. Were Renaissance manuscripts the private property of individual owners or the common wealth of a lettered public? Even an officially public library could not escape that tension, whether through abuse of borrowing privileges or plundering of vulnerable holdings. Market forces encouraged theft, while impoverished scholars used their knowledge to supplement meager incomes. Alternatively, a sense of common wealth is reflected in an ex-libris indicating that a codex belonged to an individual -and his friends.‖ Book collecting, finally, becomes a helpful clue in discerning to what a scholar is committed. Some Renaissance clergymen used culture as a way to promote their ecclesiastical careers, while others collected and shared manuscripts as a way to promote tolerance.

De Gulden Passer | The Golden Compasses, 2022

In: Competition in the European Book Market. Prices and privileges (fifteenth-sixteenth centuries), edited by Angela Nuovo, Joran Proot, Diane E. Booton. In 1507 a contract was signed affirming the foundation of a company composed of Battista and Silvestro Torti , Lucantonio Giunta, Giorgio Arrivabene, Amedeo Scoto, and Antonio Moretto to publish legal texts. The contract, is well known to book historians but was still awaiting a thorough analysis. This article provides the edition of the text (and its translation into English) and a comment focusing on the core of the agreement (and some of the many elements worth noting). The core of the contract consisted in a very ambitious programme: they agreed on printing the works of almost all the most relevant jurists, a consistent catalogue to address a specific target of customers. Both the list of authors and the very idea of the joint-venture (between the Torti, well established in the field of legal editions, and Giunta, one of the greatest publishers of his time, and the others) resulted from the refined professionality reached by early modern printers and reflected in the sentence 'per mazor utilitade nostra e reputatione del mestier' which is eventually found in the text of the contract.