660 mario infelise
the success of religious books also contributed to the revival of other
genres, and Venice once again became a principal center for the euro-
pean book trade, benefitting as well from the new-found dynamism of
the republic of letters in which intellectual exchange became ever more
frequent and intense. literary journalism thus came to play a fundamen-
tal role in bringing together and informing european litterati, function-
ing simultaneously as a tool of scientific and literary dissemination and
commercial promotion. such operations were numerous in the late 17th
century, and the 30 years after 1710 saw the affirmation of the Giornale de’
letterati d’Italia, which became one of the primary tools of information for
the scientific world.23
this period produced numerous editions of great prestige. there
appeared imposing works of erudition, large-format atlases, and multi-
volume encyclopedias and dictionaries in every branch of knowledge.
illustrators and engravers took on renewed importance, working con-
stantly to satisfy the demands of printers and booksellers, and in doing
so gave a unique luster to the editorial production of the time. in the late
17th century, the franciscan cartographer Vincenzo Coronelli’s tireless
work gave birth to an innumerable quantity of large illustrated atlases, city
plans, and vedute of mediterranean and european fortresses. the same
period witnessed the initial successes of the great Venetian vedutisti, from
antonio Carlevaris to Canaletto, whose works were systematically circu-
lated by an army of engravers looking to satisfy the growing european
demand for such images. equally lively was the development of book illus-
trations, a trend which continued throughout the 18th century and made
Venice a european capital of copper engraving. the painter giambattista
Piazzetta, for example, collaborated with various printers illustrating the
works of Bossuet, a famous edition of tasso’s Gerusalemme Liberata, and
a notably refined Beatae Mariae Verginis Officium published by giambat-
tista Pasquali. in other cases, veritable équipes of illustrators and engrav-
ers were formed, as happened in 1756 for Petrarch’s Rime published by
antonio Zatta.24 Publishers such as Pasquali and albrizzi lent particular
attention to this sort of production, sought after as it was by great euro-
pean collectors. the British consul in Venice, Joseph smith, protector of
23 Brendan dooley, Science, Politics and Society Society in Eighteenth-Century Italy: The
giornale de’ letterati d’italia and its World (new York, 1991).
24 on the 18th-century illustrated book, see giuseppe morazzoni, Il libro illustrato
veneziano del Settecento (milan, 1943); on engravers, see dario succi, ed., Da Carlevaris al
Tiepolo. Incisori veneti e friulani del Settecento (Venice, 1983).