![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() The book brims with historical context, including papal and political rivalries, the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks, and the emergence of the new technology in Germany that would up-end the entire industry of bookmaking, displacing countless scribes, parchment makers, and others - much as the internet has transformed publishing and displaced workers today. The arguments found their way into 15th-century Florence as Italian intellectuals published their own interpretations of the ancient Greek work, more grist for Vespasiano the bookseller. For instance, he explores the long-running debates between Plato the teacher and Plutarch his student over the former’s classic, The Republic. The bookseller of the title of this fine work is Vespasiano da Bisticci, a once-prominent purveyor and producer of handwritten, handbound volumes who held forth in his shop on the Via dei Librai (the Street of Booksellers) in 15th-century Florence.īut though he is the central character, Vespasiano is also the vehicle through which New York Times-bestselling author Ross King writes about the centuries-long evolution of bookmaking, from the use of papyrus and parchment in ancient times, through the Middle Ages and Renaissance Italy, into the industrial age of the printing press.īibliophiles will enjoy many of the stories King tells, which are often as much about the content of the books as those books’ actual form. ![]()
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