MANUSCRIPT CULTURE IN RENAISSANCE ITALY by Richardson, Brian

ISBN: "9781107425521

Cambridge University Press,  10 July 2014

Paperback 332 pages

Even after the arrival of printing in the fifteenth century, texts continued to be circulated within Italian society by means of manuscript. Scribal culture offered rapidity, flexibility and a sense of private, privileged communication. This book is a detailed treatment of the continuing use of scribal transmission in Renaissance Italy. Brian Richardson explores the uses of scribal culture within specific literary genres, its methods and its audiences. He also places it within the wider system of textual communication and of self-presentation, examining the relationships between manuscript and print and between manuscript and the spoken or sung performance of verse. An important contribution to a lively area of the history of the book, this study will be of interest both for the abundance of new material on the circulation of texts in Italy and as a model for how to study the cultures of manuscript and print in early modern Europe.

Editorial Reviews

Book Description
This book is an analysis of the circulation of texts in Renaissance Italy: in print, manuscript, and spoken word.

About the Author
Brian Richardson is Professor of Italian Language at the University of Leeds.