Early Modern Printing Culture

This paper explores the extensive coverage of the harsh winter of 1740 in European print. It asks which topics predominated in which media forms and what this tells us about the cultural significance of the exceptional weather conditions. Recurring themes are outlined and illustrated with source examples from and about various European countries in text and image, and their significance is reflected upon and contextualized, this concerns reports of cold weather and tragedies, interventions by the authorities, charity, empirical observations, attempts at explanation and curiosities such as frost fairs or the St Petersburg Ice Palace. It becomes clear that the cold winter of 1740 was omnipresent. News of the cold, the associated tragedies and disasters as well as the authorities' attempts to combat it, or at least stage it, circulated throughout Europe. The content often reflected the interests of the target audiences and offered up-to-date information, social orientation and a search for natural causes, not least as an outlet for social relief through entertainment.

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Der Beitrag ist der Spurensuche von Zeugnissen des Kältewinters von 1740 in der europäischen Druckpublizistik gewidmet. Es wird gefragt, welche Themen inwelchen Medienformen vorherrschten und was dies über die kulturelle Bedeutung der außergewöhnlichen Wetterlage aussagt. Wiederkehrende Themen werden skizziert und mit Quellenbeispielen aus bzw. über verschiedene europäische Länder in Text und Bild illustriert sowie ihre Bedeutung reflektiert und kontextualisiert. In den Fokus rücken Kältemeldungen und Tragödien, Eingriffe der Obrigkeiten und Almosen, empirische Beobachtungen, Erklärungsversuche und Kuriosa wie Frost Fairs oder der St. Petersburger Eispalast. Es wird deutlich, dass der Kältewinter von 1740 publizistisch omnipräsent war. In ganz Europa kursierten Nachrichten von der Kälte, den damit einhergehenden Tragödien und Katastrophen sowie von obrigkeitlichen Versuchen, dagegen anzukämpfen bzw. dies zumindest zu inszenieren. Die Inhalte spiegelten Interessensschwerpunkte des Zielpublikums wider und boten aktuelle Informationen, gesellschaftliche Orientierung sowie naturkundliche Ursachensuche, nicht zuletzt auch ein Ventil der gesellschaftlichen Entlastung durch Unterhaltung.

mits einemm usikalischen BeraterP etrusC astellanus das Harmonicem usices OdhecatonA(RISM 1501 1)h eraus: Es ist das erste im Typendruckverfahren hergestellte Buch in mehrstimmigen Mensuralnoten, enthaltend 100d rei-und vierstimmige Chansons der bekanntesten zeitgenössischen Komponisten-d ie meisten Franzosen und Flamen. 2 Bereits 1498 hatte Petrucci beim venezianischen Senat ein Gesuch gestellt, das ihm als Erfinder ein Monopol für die Dauer von 20 Jahren zusichern sollte: »… chome aprimo Inventore che niuno altro nel dominio de Vostra Signoria possi stampare Canto figurado …p er anni vinti«. 3 Dem Erstling folgten gleichgeartete Publikationen (Canti B, Canti C), die einen Hinweis liefern, dass Petruccis vorrangiges Ziel in den ersten Jahren seiner Herausgebertätigkeit (bis 1504)d arin bestand, nicht die sakrale, sondern

Strategies adopted by the early modern printers vis-à-vis the acquisition and use of woodcut blocks depended on various internal and external factors. One might assume that the former—a printer’s personal ambitions and convictions concerning the role of illustrations in general—were in most part dependent on the latter (i.e., the economic, political or legal circumstances). Hans Daubmann, a printer active first in Nuremberg in 1547–54 and then in Königsberg in 1554–73, is an interesting case of a fairly consistent approach to illustrations, despite the diametrically different conditions in which each of his printing houses operated. In Nuremberg, he tried—but ultimately failed—to establish his professional position, struggling against tough competition and censorship, while, in Königsberg, he easily and almost immediately dominated the local market with support from the Duke of Prussia. In both places, Daubmann issued many illustrated works and invariably minimised the associated expenditures. He was exceptionally keen on repurchasing woodblocks from various sources, which was undoubtedly much cheaper than commissioning new items. Even when he chose to order new matrices, they usually reproduced popular models. This conservative strategy was preserved until the mid-17th century by Daubmann’s heirs and followers: Georg Osterberger, Johann Fabricius and Lorenz Segebade. They mostly reused these woodblocks, some heavily worn out, and only exceptionally developed the inherited stock of printing matrices.

В центре внимания автора - формирование и развитие издательской стратегии базельского типографа Иоганна Фробена (1460-1527). На основании статистического изучения репертуара его типографии, анализа отношений Фробена с коллегами-гуманистами, выявления изменений во внешнем облике его книг в статье сделан вывод, что Фробен создал научную гуманистическую типографию, взяв за основу итальянскую издательскую практику. Типограф внимательно следил за тенденциями на книжном рынке и перестраивал свою издательскую стратегию, исходя из внешних факторов.

This is the description I made, together with Marian Croitoru,  for „Antim Ivireanul. Opera tipografica” (coord. Arhim. Policarp Chitulescu, Bucharest, 2016), of 2 books printed by Antim the Iberian and Athanasios Dabbas, in Greek and Arabic, in Snagov (1701) and Bucharest (1702)

The fundamental role played by printers and booksellers in the international exchange of ideas in the 17th-century European Republic of Letters is well known. This paper examines an individual Roman author’s relationships with Italian, French, Dutch, and German booksellers throughout his 40 year career, as documented in his published works. Gian Vittorio Rossi (1577-1647) lived his entire life in Rome and was an active participant in the Accademia degli Umoristi, a vibrant literary academy that enjoyed the support and participation of Pope Urban VIII Barberini. His letters (written in the international language of Latin) to and about printers and booksellers demonstrate his keen awareness of books as a vehicle for increasing his own knowledge, reputation, and earnings. Booksellers loom so large in his imagination that he inserts a bookseller, appearing under the pseudonym Thaumantinus, into his novel Eudemia (1637 and 1645), a satirical depiction of his intellectual and artistic circle. I will examine Rossi’s increasing appreciation of printers and booksellers as a consumer, as publishers of his first works in Italy, and finally as collaborators who help put him on the map as an author -- at age 66 -- in Northern Europe. I will also propose an identification of “Thaumantinus nobilis bibliopola” (Thaumantinus the renowned bookseller), who hosted literary salons at his bookshop in Rome and helped Rossi get his novel published.

Gian Vittorio Rossi (1577-1647) lived his entire life in Rome and was an active participant in the vibrant literary and artistic community that orbited around the court of Pope Urban VIII Barberini. His satirical novel Eudemia (1637 and 1645) is a roman à clef that, while set in the fictional time period of 1st century CE in the aftermath of the Conspiracy of Sejanus, is actually a mordant critique of his own society: Seventeenth-century Rome. In the persona of the narrator Flavius Vopiscus Niger, Rossi introduces us to his circle, lets us in on the debates of the day, and pulls back the curtains on a society where (in his telling) petty rivalries thrive, and hard work and skill are trumped by personal relationships and favors. Since the novel was first published in 1637, attempts have been made to identify the people behind the pseudonyms in Eudemia. Besides extant manuscript keys to the novel, identifications have been offered by Christian Gryphius (1710), Fernand Drujon (1888), Luigi Gerboni (1899), and Jozef IJsewijn (1998). This paper will bring all of these hypotheses together, suggest corrections, and offer some new identifications. In addition to identifying people, this paper will situate Rossi’s narrative within specific physical locations around the city of Rome, thus filling out a more complete picture of Rossi’s interactions, activities, and movements within this highly cultured society that admired him but never completely embraced him.

Half of the Sixteenth Century 2 Cf. Johannes Klaus Kipf, 'Auf dem Weg zum Schwankbuch. Die Bedeutung Frankfurter Drucker und Verleger für die Ausbildung eines Buchtyps im 16. Jahrhundert' , in Robert Seidel & Regina Toepfer (eds.), Frankfurt im Schnittpunkt der Diskurse (Frankfurt, Klostermann, 2010), pp. 195-220. 3 A comprehensive analysis is found in Imke Schmidt, Die Bücher aus der Offizin Gülfferich -Han Weigand Han-Erben (Wiesbaden, Harrassowitz, 1996): here pp. 45f.; 259f. 4 Cf. Dietz, Frankfurter Handelsgeschichte, p. 63.