662 mario infelise
12.4 per cent of rome.29 such books were, for the most part, in latin and
constituted mainly classical texts for use in schools, prayer books, and
liturgical, theological, and juridical works.
direct contacts with monastic orders and with spanish booksellers con-
tributed significantly to the Venetian book’s success. the aragonese clergy
employed a Rezo ecclesiastico printed in Venice on commission. then, in
1766, the minister general of the franciscans gave the Baglioni the exclu-
sive right to print breviaries, missals, and diurni for the order’s use, and
in 1773 the remondini published the works of st thomas at the request
of the spanish dominicans with an investment of over 18,000 ducats.30 in
some cases these Venetian exports were camouflaged with false places
of printing to mask their true origins, and indeed the above-mentioned
version of st thomas’ Summa claimed to have been printed in rome. in
other circumstances, spanish bookmen, unable to take on the burden of
printing the works for which they had won the rights, entrusted the work
to agents sent by Venetian publishers for that very purpose. antonio de
Castro was the spanish agent for the publisher orazio Poletti, and he trav-
eled around spain acquiring the publishing rights from struggling span-
ish bookmen, organized their printing in Venice, and finally exported the
entire stock back to spain with the publishing information desired by the
spanish client. such a system required a dense network of connections
between spain and Venice, and indeed the Baglioni maintained their own
shop in madrid, while many other great Venetian publishers had various
correspondents throughout iberia, especially in the principal ports such
as Barcelona, malaga, Cadiz, and lisbon, with the last two specializing
in shipments to latin america. the remondini enjoyed particular dis-
tinction in such commerce, as they specialized not only in the religious
genre but also in selling popular prints in enormous volumes, which they
distributed via hundreds of wandering salesmen from the Val tesino in
the Prince-Bishopric of trent. the mobility of these vendors allowed them
to sell such prints from america to the furthest regions of the russian
empire.31
29 lucien domergue, “les livres importés en galice au XViiie siècle,” in De l’alphabètisation
aux circuits du livre en Espagne. XVIe–XIXe siècles (Paris, 1987), pp. 433–46.
30 gasparo gozzi, “Col più devoto ossequio.” Interventi sull’editoria (1762–1780), ed.
m. infelise and f. soldini (Venice, 2003).
31 on travelling book-salesmen in europe, see laurence fontaine, Histoire du colportage
en Europe: XV–XIX siècles (Paris, 1993). for those from the Val tesino, see elda fietta ielen,
Con la cassella in spalla. Gli ambulanti di Tesino (ivrea, 1987).