book publishing and the circulation of information 657
public discussion in the city among the most disparate social groups, and
on a wide variety of subjects from politics to religion.17 from the end of
the 17th century through the entire century to follow, there came to flour-
ish in Venice a multiform market of information that was a notable char-
acteristic of the Venetian cultural life of the time.18
The Venetian Book between the 16th and the 18th Centuriesreturning to the history of the printed book, its period of greatest
development was shaken by the religious conflicts of the 16th century
when, on the heels of the roman Church’s reaction, Venice too had to
confront the diffusion of Protestant thought and the need to impose a
system of control that might prevent the spread of heresy.19 the great
european division caused by the Protestant reformation had significant
consequences on book production. as we shall see, while the republic of
Venice always attempted to restrain the growing demands of the roman
Church, newly reorganized after the Council of trent, the overall cultural
climate and the demand for books underwent important changes. in
Catholic states, publishers’ catalogues changed, substituting potentially
risky titles—including the majority of books in the vernacular languages—
with devotional works and others of a religious or liturgical nature. the
very geography of european publishing changed as well. While new great
publishing centers were developing in central and northern europe, Venice
progressively lost contact with the north and particularly with Protestant-
controlled areas, though it was able to maintain a marked supremacy
in italy and a position of some importance in the mediterranean. the
iberian peninsula continued to be an especially key market for Venetian
publishers, given the dearth of important local publishers. alongside the
Venetian printers, in fact, many of the great continental publishing houses
competed for supremacy there; first among these were the Plantin of
17 on military newspapers from the late 17th century, see mario infelise, “the War,
the news and the Curious: military gazettes in italy,” in B. dooley and s. Baron, eds., The
Politics of Information in Early Modern Europe (london/new York, 2001), pp. 216–36. on the
debates stimulated by such newsletters, see federico Barbierato, Politici e ateisti, Percorsi
della miscredenza a Venezia fra Sei e Settecento (milan, 2006), engl. trans., The Inquisitor in
the Hat Shop. Inquisition, Forbidden Books and Unbelief in Early Modern Venice (farnham,
2012).
18 marino Berengo, Giornali veneziani del Settecento (milan, 1962).
19 Paul f. grendler, The Roman Inquisition and the Venetian Press, 1540–1605 (Princeton,
1977).