Niccol˜ Di Lorenzo Della Magna and the Social World of Florentine Printing, Ca. 1470Ð1493

Book excerpt: A new history of one of the foremost printers of the Renaissance explores how the Age of Print came to Italy. Lorenz Bšninger offers a fresh history of the birth of print in Italy through the story of one of its most important figures, Niccol˜ di Lorenzo della Magna. After having worked for several years for a judicial court in Florence, Niccol˜ established his business there and published a number of influential books. Among these were Marsilio FicinoÕs De christiana religione, Leon Battista AlbertiÕs De re aedificatoria, Cristoforo LandinoÕs commentaries on DanteÕs Commedia, and Francesco BerlinghieriÕs Septe giornate della geographia. Many of these books were printed in vernacular Italian. Despite his prominence, Niccol˜ has remained an enigma. A meticulous historical detective, Bšninger pieces together the thorough portrait that scholars have been missing. In doing so, he illuminates not only Niccol˜Õs life but also the Italian printing revolution generally. Combining Renaissance studiesÕ traditional attention to bibliographic and textual concerns with a broader social and economic history of printing in Renaissance Italy, Bšninger provides an unparalleled view of the business of printing in its earliest years. The story of Niccol˜ di Lorenzo furnishes a host of new insights into the legal issues that printers confronted, the working conditions in printshops, and the political forces that both encouraged and constrained the publication and dissemination of texts.