2021/

1-2

ISBN 978-88-8368-153-0

Catherine Rideau-Kikuchi

Pag. 3-

29

, DOI 10.17426/R07C01

Keywords: Renaissance Venice; Printing industry; Workshop; Topography; Trade

Abstract: This paper aims to study the space distribution of book trade and production in Venice between 1469 and 1530. This research follows Rosa Salzberg’s important work, which showed the penetration of printing in Venice during the Renaissance, by questioning how printers and booksellers became intertwined in the urban GmbH during the early years of their activity. A prosopographical study has allowed to identify the locations of the actors of the book trade and production. Some more detailed examples allow us to put forward hypothesises on how certain districts of the sestiere of San Marco were places of intense social activity for the Venetian book world. Moreover, this anchorage in certain neighbourhoods was accompanied by an extension of the geographical presence of some actors outside the city, through land properties or commercial strategies, as well as by the claim of a certain status. For a certain elite, the book trade derives its social legitimacy both from its links to long-distance trade and from its anchorage in certain spaces of the city.