
eBook - ePub
The Bookseller of Florence
The Story of the Manuscripts That Illuminated the Renaissance
- 486 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub
About this book
The
New York Times–bestselling author of
Brunelleschi's Dome captures the Renaissance spirit in this biography of "the king of the world's booksellers."
During the Renaissance, Florence's manuscript hunters, scribes, scholars, and booksellers blew the dust off a thousand years of history and, through the discovery and diffusion of ancient knowledge, imagined a new and enlightened world.
At the heart of this activity, which bestselling author Ross King relates in his exhilarating new book, was a remarkable man: Vespasiano da Bisticci. Born in 1422, he became what a friend called "the king of the world's booksellers." At a time when all books were made by hand, Vespasiano produced and sold many hundreds of volumes from his bookshop, which also became a gathering spot for debate and discussion. His clients included a roll-call of popes, kings, and princes across Europe who wished to burnish their reputations by founding magnificent libraries.
Vespasiano reached the summit of his powers as Europe's most prolific merchant of knowledge when a new invention appeared: the printed book. By 1480, he was swept away by this epic technological disruption, whereby cheaply produced books reached readers who never could have afforded one of Vespasiano's elegant manuscripts.
A thrilling chronicle of intellectual ferment set against the dramatic political and religious turmoil of the era, Ross King's brilliant The Bookseller of Florence is also an ode to books and bookmaking that charts the world-changing shift from script to print through the life of an extraordinary man long lost to history—one of the true titans of the Renaissance.
"A dazzling, instructive and highly entertaining book." — The Wall Street Journal
During the Renaissance, Florence's manuscript hunters, scribes, scholars, and booksellers blew the dust off a thousand years of history and, through the discovery and diffusion of ancient knowledge, imagined a new and enlightened world.
At the heart of this activity, which bestselling author Ross King relates in his exhilarating new book, was a remarkable man: Vespasiano da Bisticci. Born in 1422, he became what a friend called "the king of the world's booksellers." At a time when all books were made by hand, Vespasiano produced and sold many hundreds of volumes from his bookshop, which also became a gathering spot for debate and discussion. His clients included a roll-call of popes, kings, and princes across Europe who wished to burnish their reputations by founding magnificent libraries.
Vespasiano reached the summit of his powers as Europe's most prolific merchant of knowledge when a new invention appeared: the printed book. By 1480, he was swept away by this epic technological disruption, whereby cheaply produced books reached readers who never could have afforded one of Vespasiano's elegant manuscripts.
A thrilling chronicle of intellectual ferment set against the dramatic political and religious turmoil of the era, Ross King's brilliant The Bookseller of Florence is also an ode to books and bookmaking that charts the world-changing shift from script to print through the life of an extraordinary man long lost to history—one of the true titans of the Renaissance.
"A dazzling, instructive and highly entertaining book." — The Wall Street Journal
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Yes, you can access The Bookseller of Florence by Ross King in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Literature & History of Art. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Also by Ross King
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Map
- Chapter 1. The Street of Booksellers
- Chapter 2. The Pure Radiance of the Past
- Chapter 3. Wondrous Treasures
- Chapter 4. Athens on the Arno
- Chapter 5. Wise Men from the East
- Chapter 6. Vespasiano Mangiadore
- Chapter 7. Antique Letters
- Chapter 8. Friends in High Places
- Chapter 9. The Fall of Greece
- Chapter 10. The Miraculous Man
- Chapter 11. The Decades of the King
- Chapter 12. A Destiny of Dignity and Excellence
- Chapter 13. The Spirit of Plato
- Chapter 14. Uomini da Bene e Letterati
- Chapter 15. Hermes the Thrice-Greatest
- Chapter 16. A Divine Way of Writing
- Chapter 17. The Finest Library Since Antiquity
- Chapter 18. The Second Coming
- Chapter 19. Florentinis Ingeniis Nil Ardui Est
- Chapter 20. For the Advantage of All Scholars
- Chapter 21. Apud Sanctum Iacobum de Ripoli
- Chapter 22. A Reversal of Fortune
- Chapter 23. How the Mighty Are Fallen
- Chapter 24. The Land of Oblivion
- Chapter 25. Lament for Otranto
- Chapter 26. Pardon and Deliver Us
- Chapter 27. The Grand Conjunction
- Epilogue: Chasing Away the Darkness
- Color Plates
- Acknowledgments
- Image Credits
- Selected Bibliography
- Notes
- Index