book publishing and the circulation of information 659
this crisis brought about a long-term reorganization of the entire
Venetian publishing system, which began to give signals of recovery in
the last decades of the 17th century. this period saw new forms of invest-
ment in the publishing sector, and new modes of publicizing products.
first of all, there was a notable move to increase production of religious
books, undoubtedly the most profitable genre. exploiting the inexhaust-
ible demand for such texts in the Catholic world, several great publish-
ers were able to weather the storm and ultimately reanimate the city’s
publishing industry as a whole. a useful example would be the parabola
of the Venetian house of the Baglioni, the greatest italian company in the
years around the turn of the 18th century. at the end of the 16th century,
the dynasty’s founder tommaso had been closely associated with circles
in Venice and Padua particularly interested in scientific debates and of
a strongly anti-clerical political stance. he represented roberto meietti,
publisher of the republic’s chief theologian and fierce adversary of the
papal court Paolo sarpi, and attended the major german book fairs from
which he imported non-orthodox books into Venice. among the other
works in his catalogue were also several of galileo’s, principally the 1610
Sidereus Nuncius. after tommaso’s death from plague in 1631, his heirs
chose a radically new direction more in line with the changing times.
these would be years in which Venice, weakened by a long, exhausting
war against the ottomans in defense of the island of Candia (Crete), would
have to moderate its previously intransigent aversion to clerical interfer-
ence in order to obtain aid from the holy see. the Baglioni thus chose
to focus their efforts on liturgical and theological texts, which enjoyed a
more profitable and secure market and were more difficult to counterfeit.
in only a few decades, they created one of the most successful commer-
cial enterprises in europe, such that within two generations the heirs of
the agent of small printer accustomed to wander about the book fairs of
europe acquired enough wealth to purchase a title of Venetian nobility. in
the wake of the Baglioni, the greatest book entrepreneurs of the day were
nearly always those who serviced the enormous ecclesiastical market, in
a period also notable for the massive rebuilding of numerous extremely
wealthy monastic libraries.22
22 see the studies of antonella Barzazi: “ordini religiosi e biblioteche a Venezia tra
Cinque e seicento,” Annali dell’Istituto storico italo-germanico in Trento 21 (1995), 141–228;
and Gli affanni dell’erudizione. Studi e organizzazione culturale degli ordini religiosi a
Venezia tra Sei e Settecento (Venice, 2004).