Friday Friyay: 'The Bookseller of Florence' by Ross King

 I've been trying to enjoy my first week of "I think this is a break?" but it hasn't worked out great so far, in part cause I have to catch up on work I put aside to meet all of my deadlines and because I already have a new class starting tomorrow about archaeology and anthropology, so reading into that has cost quite a bit of time. Butttt I still have another week to go of kind of a holiday, so hopes are that before the 26th I'll have rested a bit and am ready for the start of the last block of lectures! Today I'm featuring a read that is kind of in between rest and studying for me: The Bookseller of Florence by Ross King

The Renaissance in Florence conjures images of beautiful frescoes and elegant buildings—the dazzling handiwork of the city’s skilled artists and architects. But equally important for the centuries to follow were geniuses of a different sort: Florence’s manuscript hunters, scribes, scholars, and booksellers, who 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, over four decades Vespasiano produced and sold many hundreds of volumes from his bookshop, which also became a gathering spot for debate and discussion. Besides repositories of ancient wisdom by the likes of Plato, Aristotle, and Quintilian, his books were works of art in their own right, copied by talented scribes and illuminated by the finest miniaturists. 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, the king of the world’s booksellers 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.

I'm not all that familiar with the Renaissance, except the basics, but I do have a passion for medieval manuscripts, so I'm excited to dig into this book and find out more about this Vespasiano da Bisticci! The quotes below are from an uncorrected proof.

Book Beginnings is at home on Rose City Reader, hosted by Gilion Dumas, and Friday 56 at Freda's Voice, hosted by Freda. I'll also be joining the Book Blog Hop, hosted by Charlie over at Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer.

BB:

'The Street of Booksellers, Via dei Librai, ran through the heart of Florence, midway between the town hall to the south and the cathedral to the north. In the 1430s, the street was home to an assortment of tailors and cloth merchants, as well as a barrel maker, a barber, a butcher, a baker, a cheesemonger, several notaries, a manuscript illuminator, two painters who shares a workshop, and a pianellaio - a maker of slippers. It took its name, however, from the shops of the many booksellers and stationers, known as cartolai, scattered along its narrow stretch.' p.1

As I was reading this I did really feel like I was getting a sense of the street, its business and the shouting and excitement that must have been going one very day. But above everything I got that tingle I get every time I walk past a bookstore... I miss popping into bookstores and I can't wait until we're all able to do that again!

F56:

'Bruni's translation and commentary quickly became one of the most popular and influential treatises of the century: more than 230 manuscripts still survive of the many copies made in the decades that followed.' p.56

Although I'm not sure which text they're describing here, the fact that 230 manuscripts of it remain is astounding. Since everything was copied out by hand, creating a manuscript was obviously a laborious and expensive process, so the fact that this many remain after all these centuries gives us a good indication it had a pretty wide readership, for the Middle Ages.

Book Blogger Hop:

This week's question comes from the lovely Elizabeth from Silver's Reviews:

How many different weekly memes do you participate in besides the Book Blogger Hop?

This is a great question and I can't wait to see all the different ones you guys take part in when I pop around to see everyone's posts!

I myself keep it pretty tame. I do the three in this post on a Friday and then on the Monday I join the Mailbox Monday meme because it helps me stay on top of my own reading and what is coming in. Aside from that it is just reviews and every Wednesday I try to  post a Sip + Read post where I round up the interesting articles I've read over my morning coffee in the preceding seven days. 

So, what do you guys think of The Bookseller of Florence? History and Non-Fiction aren't for everyone but I am very intrigued already!