The Bookseller of Florence
eBook - ePub

The Bookseller of Florence

The Story of the Manuscripts That Illuminated the Renaissance

  1. 486 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

The Bookseller of Florence

The Story of the Manuscripts That Illuminated the Renaissance

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

Frequently asked questions

Yes, you can cancel anytime from the Subscription tab in your account settings on the Perlego website. Your subscription will stay active until the end of your current billing period. Learn how to cancel your subscription.
At the moment all of our mobile-responsive ePub books are available to download via the app. Most of our PDFs are also available to download and we're working on making the final remaining ones downloadable now. Learn more here.
Perlego offers two plans: Essential and Complete
  • Essential is ideal for learners and professionals who enjoy exploring a wide range of subjects. Access the Essential Library with 800,000+ trusted titles and best-sellers across business, personal growth, and the humanities. Includes unlimited reading time and Standard Read Aloud voice.
  • Complete: Perfect for advanced learners and researchers needing full, unrestricted access. Unlock 1.4M+ books across hundreds of subjects, including academic and specialized titles. The Complete Plan also includes advanced features like Premium Read Aloud and Research Assistant.
Both plans are available with monthly, semester, or annual billing cycles.
We are an online textbook subscription service, where you can get access to an entire online library for less than the price of a single book per month. With over 1 million books across 1000+ topics, we’ve got you covered! Learn more here.
Look out for the read-aloud symbol on your next book to see if you can listen to it. The read-aloud tool reads text aloud for you, highlighting the text as it is being read. You can pause it, speed it up and slow it down. Learn more here.
Yes! You can use the Perlego app on both iOS or Android devices to read anytime, anywhere — even offline. Perfect for commutes or when you’re on the go.
Please note we cannot support devices running on iOS 13 and Android 7 or earlier. Learn more about using the app.
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

  1. Cover
  2. Also by Ross King
  3. Title Page
  4. Copyright
  5. Dedication
  6. Epigraph
  7. Contents
  8. Map
  9. Chapter 1. The Street of Booksellers
  10. Chapter 2. The Pure Radiance of the Past
  11. Chapter 3. Wondrous Treasures
  12. Chapter 4. Athens on the Arno
  13. Chapter 5. Wise Men from the East
  14. Chapter 6. Vespasiano Mangiadore
  15. Chapter 7. Antique Letters
  16. Chapter 8. Friends in High Places
  17. Chapter 9. The Fall of Greece
  18. Chapter 10. The Miraculous Man
  19. Chapter 11. The Decades of the King
  20. Chapter 12. A Destiny of Dignity and Excellence
  21. Chapter 13. The Spirit of Plato
  22. Chapter 14. Uomini da Bene e Letterati
  23. Chapter 15. Hermes the Thrice-Greatest
  24. Chapter 16. A Divine Way of Writing
  25. Chapter 17. The Finest Library Since Antiquity
  26. Chapter 18. The Second Coming
  27. Chapter 19. Florentinis Ingeniis Nil Ardui Est
  28. Chapter 20. For the Advantage of All Scholars
  29. Chapter 21. Apud Sanctum Iacobum de Ripoli
  30. Chapter 22. A Reversal of Fortune
  31. Chapter 23. How the Mighty Are Fallen
  32. Chapter 24. The Land of Oblivion
  33. Chapter 25. Lament for Otranto
  34. Chapter 26. Pardon and Deliver Us
  35. Chapter 27. The Grand Conjunction
  36. Epilogue: Chasing Away the Darkness
  37. Color Plates
  38. Acknowledgments
  39. Image Credits
  40. Selected Bibliography
  41. Notes
  42. Index