The Story of the Manuscripts That Illuminated the Renaissance
January 25, 2021
Art historian King (Brunelleschi’s Dome) delivers a richly detailed portrait of 15th-century Florence and the important role booksellers played in disseminating ancient Greek and Latin texts that were vital to the Renaissance. King focuses on Vespasiano da Bisticci, a renowned bookseller and “manuscript hunter” who produced gorgeously illustrated parchment copies of theological texts and works by Plato, Aristotle, and other ancient philosophers. Like many Florentines, Vespasiano had to balance his relationships with the city-state’s most prominent families carefully; in one case, his stellar reputation resulted in a brief wartime truce between his patrons Lorenzo de’ Medici and the King of Urbino so that a specially commissioned Bible could reach the king safely. When the success of the Gutenberg printing press reduced interest in parchment booksellers, Vespasiano used his retirement to write a humanizing biographical series on his famous friends and patrons, including Cosimo de’ Medici. King’s expansive narrative also includes a history of bookmaking and the transition between “modern” Gothic calligraphy and the new “ancient” method designed to mimic the cleaner style found in classical works. Though somewhat hampered by a lack of available information about Vespasiano’s personal life, this expert account shines a new light on the Renaissance.
February 15, 2021
The role of books in the Florentine Renaissance. In his latest, King revisits Florence, the setting for Bruneschelli's Dome. In 1433, on a street that was "at the very center of Florence's manuscript trade," 11-year-old Vespasiano da Bisticci began a "long and astounding career as a maker of books and a merchant of knowledge." Known to many as the "king of the world's booksellers," the bright and amiable Vespasiano was well positioned to become friends with some of the city's most influential and book-loving citizens, including Pope Eugenius IV and Cosimo de' Medici. Besides making magnificent, illustrated books for wealthy customers and assisting them in building their libraries, Vespasiano's main claim to fame, argues King, was his own book, The Lives of 103 Illustrious Men, which Swiss historian Jacob Burkhardt used as a primary reference for his influential The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (1860). Vespasiano wrote about important manuscript hunters who unearthed ancient texts that were vital to literary and historical scholarship. He became an expert on the manuscripts and authors and traveled to inspect private libraries and make purchases for his bookshop and wealthy clients, took commissions to help stock important libraries, and hired copyists to reproduce manuscripts. King discusses in lavish detail how scribes copied manuscripts and illustrators produced illuminated decorations. The development of new scripts allowed speedier copying; one Florentine copyist could produce 20 pages, front and back, in two days. "The 1460s," writes the author, "witnessed a higher production of manuscripts in Europe than at any point in history." Throughout, King deftly navigates Florence's rich cultural and political history, painting intimate portraits of Vespasiano and others involved in the book world during these incredible times, including the man who would revolutionize it all, Johannes Gutenberg. Vespasiano's fascinating and expansive story occasionally sags under the weight of the author's desire to leave no detail unturned. A treat for book lovers.
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April 1, 2021
When 11-year-old Vespasiano da Bisticci arrived in Florence in 1433, his first job was in a bookshop, binding manuscripts. He became, during his 40-year career, "the king of the world's booksellers," as one client described him. With customers who included Italian nobility and the wealthy literati of Germany, France, and England, he not only witnessed the rediscovery of ancient Greek and Latin philosophers and the arrival of the moveable-type printing press, but also the transition in book printing from papyrus to parchment to paper. In this fascinating biography, Canadian author King (Brunelleschi's Dome) weaves Vespasiano's story into the fabric of the tumultuous times in which he lived. Although the details about the history and mechanics of early Renaissance book production, such as ink manufacture and distribution supply chains, might be tedious in another work, here they add to the depth and enjoyment of the story. The result is a narrative about a man and his books, and so much more, including the origins and history of the Frankfurt Book Fair and the influence of Johannes Gutenberg and his printing press on the arc of history. VERDICT Standout narrative nonfiction that will engage bibliophiles and readers who enjoy historical nonfiction.--Linda Frederiksen, formerly with Washington State Univ. Lib., Vancouver
Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
Starred review from March 1, 2021
"In the thousand years between the fall of the Roman Empire and the year 1500, some 10.8 million manuscripts were produced in Western Europe. Almost half of those--4.9 million--were copied during the 1400s alone, of which 1.4 million or 29 percent were handwritten in Italy." King's magnificent new work, following Mad Enchantment (2016), illuminates this fertile period through the life of Vespasiano da Bisticci, one of the most well-known and well-connected booksellers in Renaissance Florence. Vespasiano began his apprenticeship as a young boy and quickly mastered the intricacies of producing high-quality manuscripts, eventually becoming proprietor of his own shop. His charisma and intellect would propel him into the highest reaches of Florentine society, including a close relationship with the influential and infamous Medici family. King's meticulous research provides an immersive reading experience as he expertly weaves the political intrigue of families vying for power and currying favor with the pope into a riveting intellectual history covering the evolution of books, Renaissance Italy, classical philosophy and literature, and the invention of the printing press. A profoundly engaging study of a time when books were considered essential to a meaningful life, and knowledge and wisdom were cherished as ends in themselves. For readers of Stephen Greenblatt's The Swerve (2011).
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