industry and production in the venetian terraferma 311
late 15th century, printing and publishing, which in the years between the
17th and 18th centuries experienced a new phase of expansion.42
With regard to the activity of mineral extraction, it is worthwhile to
note, along with raffaello Vergani, that “the knowledge and exploita-
tion of small mineral deposits in the Venetian alps dates back to the
12th century, but it was likely during the 1400s that it assumed a certain
importance.”43
Indeed, between 1460 and 1530, europe saw an unprecedented boom in
mining activities and metallurgy, particularly with regard to non-ferrous
metals: silver, gold, copper, and lead. studies have shown that this phe-
nomenon was most evident in central and eastern Germany, tyrol, and
slovakia, in addition to other zones of less importance quantitatively, but
just as important in terms of quality. among these was certainly the area
to the north of Vicenza, whose growth in the mining sector between the
late 15th century and early 16th was certainly favored by the growing inter-
est shown by the Venetian government in products under its “national”
soil, particularly silver. It was not by chance that, in the last decades of the
15th century, the responsibilities for mineral extraction and metal-working
passed gradually from the senate to the council of ten (which in those
very years was moving to concentrate the control of natural resources and
the territory in general in its own hands), until the 1488 declaration of a
veritable code of law for mining which not only rigorously set down the
rights and responsibilities of concessionaires but also provided that dis-
putes between or within mining companies fell under the exclusive juris-
diction of a mining judge, the Vicar General of Mines. Mineral extraction
in Vicenza’s territory witnessed its period of greatest splendor in the first
decade of the 16th century, reaching an annual production of roughly 500–
600 kg of silver; certainly a modest figure when compared to the 10,000 kg
obtained on average in schwaz (tyrol) between 1526 and 1535, yet still an
important number which helps “the district of Vicenza to emerge from the
category of smaller silver centers.”44 But already by the first years of the
century’s second decade, silver production around Vicenza seems to have
42 Mattozzi, “Intraprese produttive in terraferma,” in Storia di Venezia, vol. 7: La Vene-
zia barocca, ed. Benzoni and cozzi; Walter panciera, “Le cartiere del Veneto occidentale
(1550–1850 ca.),” in Fontana and sandal, eds., Carai e stampatori in Veneto, pp. 37–54; pan-
ciera, “La formazione delle specializzazioni economiche territoriali,” pp. 246–53; Mocarelli,
“Manufacturing activities in Venetian Lombardy,” pp. 326–27.
43 Vergani, miniere e società nella montagna del passato, p. 9.
44 Vergani, miniere e società nella montagna del passato, p. 23.