296 edoardo demo
of the region’s industrial development.”13 But neither has there been a
lack of studies regarding other important secondary sectors, such as knit-
wear and printing, building and leatherwork, and even the mining indus-
try, the working of paper and glass, and the production of salnitrate and
materials for war. as we shall see better in the pages to come, this series
of contributions has allowed historians to show that the Venetian, even in
the 15th century, was permeated by a decidedly precocious manufacturing
vocation that was particularly evident not only in the main urban cen-
ters (Bergamo, Brescia, padua, treviso, Verona, and Vicenza) but also in
good part of the foothill and low-alpine zones between the region around
Bergamo and that of Feltre and Belluno. Finally, rather than focus their
attention on the decline of Venice and its subject cities (as had been done
in the past), these studies have concentrated on the capacity of merchants
and entrepreneurs in the Veneto to react—often through innovation—to
the more general restructuring of the european economy underway in the
early modern centuries.14
13 Fontana, Storiografia d’industria e d’impresa, p. 174.
14 With no claims to completeness, in addition to those already cited in the previous
notes, see: Giovanni Luigi Fontana, ed., Le vie dell’industrializzazione europea (Bologna,
1997); Giovanni Luigi Fontana and ennio sandal, eds., Cartai e stampatori in Veneto (Bre-
scia, 1997); Ivo Mattozzi, “Intraprese produttive in terraferma,” in Gino Benzoni and anto-
nio Menniti Ippolito, Storia di Venezia. Dalle origini alla caduta della Serenissima, 14 vols
(rome, 1992–2002), vol. 7 (1997): La Venezia barocca, ed. Gino Benzoni and Gaetano cozzi;
Luca Molà, the Silk Industry of renaissance Venice (Baltimore/London, 2000); Luca Molà,
reinhold c. Mueller, and Zanier claudio eds., La seta in Italia dal medioevo al Seicento.
Dal baco al drappo (Venice, 2000); edoardo demo, L’“anima della città.” L’industria tessile
a Verona e Vicenza (1400–1550) (Milan, 2001); edoardo demo, “L’impresa nel Veneto tra
Medioevo ed età Moderna,” annali di storia dell’impresa 14 (2003), 251–62; Lanaro, La pratica
dello scambio; raffaello Vergani, miniere e società nella montagna del passato. alpi venete,
secoli XIII–XIX (Verona, 2003); andrea caracausi, Nastri, nastrini, cordelle: l’industria serica
nel Padovano, secc. XVII–XIX (padua, 2004); edoardo demo, “L’industria tessile nel Veneto
tra XV e XVI secolo: tecnologie e innovazione dei prodotti,” in paola Massa and angelo
Moioli, eds., Dalla corporazione al mutuo soccorso. Organizzazione e tutela del lavoro tra
XVI e XX secolo (Milan, 2004), pp. 329–41; Giovanni Luigi Fontana and Gérard Gayot, eds.,
Wool: Products and markets (13th–20th Century) (padua, 2004); Fran cesco Vianello, Seta
fine e panni grossi. manifatture e commerci nel Vicentino 1570–1700 (Milan, 2004); Walter
panciera, Il governo delle artiglierie. tecnologia bellica e istituzioni veneziane nel secondo
Cinquecento (Milan, 2005); paola Lanaro, ed., at the Center of the Old World: trade and
manufacturing in Venice and the Venetian mainland (1400–1800) (toronto, 2006); Giovanni
Favero, “new and old ceramics: privileged Firms, products and Markets in the Venetian
republic in the 17th and 18th centuries,” in Lanaro, ed., at the Center of the Old World,
pp. 271–316; Katia occhi, Boschi e mercanti. traffici di legname tra la contea di tirolo e la
repubblica di Venezia (secoli XVI–XVII) (Bologna, 2006); and andrea Mozzato, “I drappieri
di Venezia incontrano i lanaioli di terraferma. per una storia del lanificio veneto nel ’400,”
Studi Storici Luigi Simeoni, 60 (2010), 47–60.