Best selling titles and Books of hours in a Venetian bookshop of the 1480s : the "Zornale" of Francesco de Madiis

• Published in: Bibliofilia 2013-01, Vol.115, p.63-82
• Main Authors: Dondi, Cristina, Harris, Neil
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0006-0941

Provides an overview of the most successful books sold by the Venetian publisher and bookseller Francesco de Madiis (act.1481-1488) on the basis of his (still unpublished) account book "Zornale", (1484-1488; Biblioteca nazionale marciana), and more generally discusses the kind of information it furnishes with respect to editions and their commerce in the early modern book world in northern Italy. Finds that the best selling incunabula recorded by De Madiis were chiefly liturgical editions, e.g., psalters, breviaries, and other texts used for teaching purposes, including Books of hours, some of which with decorated and gilded bindings, some printed on parchment (rather than paper), some illustrated, and focuses on the specialist market for this category. Examines surviving Italian incunabula editions (the earliest extant being that published in Verona in 1481 by Bonino de Boninis, a publisher known to have supplied Venetian bookshops) and the activity of the publishers and sellers named in De Madiis' "Zornale", e.g., Jacobus Britannicus of Brescia (seemingly De Madiis' principal supplier of Books of hours), Petrus de Plasiis of Cremona, and Andreas Torresanus of Venice, future father-in-law of Aldus Manutius. Also analyzes the prices of Books of hours listed and the factors that influenced those prices.