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NEW DIRECTIONS IN BOOK HISTORY
Book Markets in
Mediterranean Europe
and Latin America
Institutions and Strategies
(15th–18th Centuries)
Edited by Montserrat Cachero
Natalia Maillard-Álvarez
New Directions in Book History
Series Editors
Shafquat Towheed
Faculty of Arts
Open University
Milton Keynes, UK
Jonathan Rose
Department of History
Drew University
Madison, NJ, USA
As a vital field of scholarship, book history has now reached a stage of
maturity where its early work can be reassessed and built upon. That is the
goal of New Directions in Book History. This series will publish mono-
graphs in English that employ advanced methods and open up new fron-
tiers in research, written by younger, mid-career, and senior scholars. Its
scope is global, extending to the Western and non-Western worlds and to
all historical periods from antiquity to the twenty-first century, including
studies of script, print, and post-print cultures. New Directions in Book
History, then, will be broadly inclusive but always in the vanguard. It will
experiment with inventive methodologies, explore unexplored archives,
debate overlooked issues, challenge prevailing theories, study neglected
subjects, and demonstrate the relevance of book history to other academic
fields. Every title in this series will address the evolution of the historiog-
raphy of the book, and every one will point to new directions in book
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* * *
Editorial board:
Marcia Abreu, University of Campinas, Brazil
Cynthia Brokaw, Brown University, USA
Matt Cohen, University of Texas at Austin, USA
Archie Dick, University of Pretoria, South Africa
Martyn Lyons, University of New South Wales, Australia
Montserrat Cachero
Natalia Maillard-Álvarez
Editors
Book Markets in
Mediterranean Europe
and Latin America
Institutions and Strategies (15th–18th Centuries)
Editors
Montserrat Cachero Natalia Maillard-Álvarez
Department of Economics, Department of Geography, History
Quantitative Methods and and Philosophy
Economic History Pablo de Olavide University
Pablo de Olavide University Seville, Spain
Seville, Spain
ISSN 2634-6117 ISSN 2634-6125 (electronic)

New Directions in Book History
ISBN 978-3-031-13267-4 ISBN 978-3-031-13268-1 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-13268-1
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer
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Contents
1 Introduction:
The Circulation of Books During the Early
Modern Period: Contexts and Perspectives 1
Natalia Maillard-Álvarez and Montserrat Cachero
Part I Privileged Markets 19
2 Book
Privileges in the Early Modern Age: From Trade
Protection and Promotion to Content Regulation 21
Angela Nuovo
3 A
Pious Privilege: Printing for Hospitals and Orphanages
Across the Spanish Empire 35
Agnes Gehbald
4 Antonio
Sanz and the Distribution of the Festivals and
Vigils Calendar 65
Natàlia Vilà-Urriza
v
vi CONTENTS
PART II Economic Behaviour at the Market 89
5 Serving
the Church, Feeding the Academia: The Giunta
and Their Market-Oriented Approach to European
Institutions 91
Andrea Ottone
6 Global
Networks in the Atlantic Book Market
(Booksellers and Inquisitors in the Spanish Empire)119
7 A
Pluricontinental Book Market: The Role of Booksellers
in the Circulation of Knowledge Within the Portuguese
Empire (c. 1790–1820)147
Airton Ribeiro da Silva Jr.
PART III Institutions, Markets, and Incentives 171
8 Publication
and Distribution of the Pre-Tridentine
Liturgical Book in Spain Through Notarial Documentation173
Manuel José Pedraza-Gracia
9 From
Rome to Constantinople. The Greek Printers and
the Struggles for Influence Between the Roman Catholic
Church and the Ecumenical Patriarchate over the
Christian Populations in the Eastern Mediterranean
(Seventeenth Century)211
Alexandra Laliberté de Gagné
10 The
Territorial Component of Inquisitorial Book Control
in the Eighteenth-Century Indias’ Trade to New Granada229
Alberto José Campillo Pardo
Name Index251
Subject Index255
Notes on Contributors
Alberto José Campillo Pardo Campillo Pardo has a Master’s degree

from the University de los Andes in Bogotá (Colombia) and holds a PhD
in History from the University of Seville. Alberto J. Campillo is the author
of the book Censura, expurgo y control en la biblioteca colonial
neogranadina.
Airton Ribeiro da Silva Jr. holds a PhD in Legal History from the
Università degli Studi di Firenze (2018). Recently, he had been postdoc
guest researcher at the Max Planck Institute für Europäische
Rechtsgeschichte (2020).
Alexandra Laliberté de Gagné holds a PhD in History (medieval and
early modern studies) from the University of Toulouse–Jean Jaurès. She
has been a lecturer at the University of Toulouse and the National Institute
Jean-François-Champollion University in Albi.
Agnes Gehbald holds a PhD from the University of Cologne with the
dissertation Popular Print Culture and Reading in Late Colonial Peru.
Manuel José Pedraza-Gracia is the Principal Investigator of several
projects devoted to book history, the director of the journal Titlivus, and
the author of, among others, El libro español del Renacimiento (2008).
Angela Nuovo is Principal Investigator of EMoBookTrade and Professor
of History of the Book at the University of Milan. She was a visiting fellow
vii
viii Notes on Contributors
at All Souls College, University of Oxford, in 2012, and recipient of an

Ahmanson Research Fellowship at the University of California Los Angeles
in 2014.
Andrea Ottone holds a PhD from the University of Naples ‘Federico II’.
He has taught at the Ohio State University and has published on topics
related to book history, readership and censorship. He is a member of the
project EMoBooktrade (Milano).
Montserrat Cachero holds a degree in Economics from the University
of Seville and a doctorate in History from the European University
Institute. She was distinguished academic visitor at Queens’ College
(University of Cambridge) in 2005 and visiting fellow at the Center for
History and Economics (Harvard University) in 2016. She has been
teaching Economic History at Pablo de Olavide University since 2004 as
part of the Economics department where she received her tenure track in
2012. She is an expert in sixteenth century Atlantic Trade and Network
Analysis. Currently she is PI of the research project Credit market and the
price revolution in Spain. A 16th century bubble? (FEDERUPO-1261964)
funded by the European Commission (EDRF) and the Junta de Andalucía.
Natalia Maillard-Álvarez holds a PhD in History from the University of
Seville. She was Marie Curie Fellow at the European University Institute
in Florence (2010-2012) and EURIAS fellow at the Collegium de Lyon
(2015–2016). Currently, she is an associate professor of Early Modern
History at the University Pablo de Olavide. She is an expert in book his-
tory of the Hispanic Monarchy during the sixteenth and seventeenth cen-
turies. She is PI of the research project International Book Trade Networks
in the Hispanic Monarchy, 1501-1648 (HAR2017-82362-P) funded by
the Spanish Government.
Natàlia Vilà-Urriza holds a master’s degree from the Universidad
Complutense de Madrid. Natàlia Vilà-Urriza has been an intern at the
National Library in Madrid
List of Figures
Fig. 5.1 Average output of the Giunta of Venice between 1489 and 1601 109
Fig. 6.1 The Inquisitorial network. Elaborated by the authors using Gephi 137
Fig. 6.2 Size distribution in the communities 139
Fig. 6.3 Network at the market. Elaborated by the authors using Gephi 141
Fig. 6.4 Size distribution of communities 143
Fig. 7.1 Number of titles sent to Africa per category 163
Fig. 7.2 Number of titles sent to China (Macao) per category 165
Fig. 7.3 Number of titles sent to India (Goa) per category 167
Fig. 8.1 Guido de Monterroterio, Manipulus Curatorum, Cesaraugusta,
Mathei Fland[ri], 15 October 1475. Colophon (Consortium of
European Research Libraries. Incunabula Short Title Catalogue
(ISTC). London, 2010. https://data.cerl.org/istc/_search,
ig00569000)176
Fig. 8.2 Publishers in liturgical book contracts 191
Fig. 8.3 Print runs grouped by hundreds 200
ix
List of Tables
Table 4.1 Estimated product costs per 550 reams from the budget
prepared by Manuel Martín in 1758. Source: AHN, Consejos,
50,69072
Table 4.2 Annual remuneration of assignees for each territory 77
Table 6.1 Triads in the network 140
Table 6.2 Ranking of triads 145
Table 6.3 Comparing networks 145
Table 7.1 Number of requests per bookseller 159
Table 8.1 Contracts analysed 192
Table 8.2 Print run of the liturgical books according to the contracts
structured in hundreds of copies 199
Table 10.1 List of books 242
xi
CHAPTER 1
Introduction: The Circulation of Books

During the Early Modern Period: Contexts
and Perspectives
Over the course of history, books have been considered a vehicle for the
transmission of ideas. Nevertheless, books are also commodities produced
to satisfy demand and supply markets. As Richard Kirwan pointed out,
‘early modern book markets were subject to myriad pressures, forces and
interests acting in concert or competition’.1 This book seeks to contribute
to our knowledge about Early Modern book markets in two geographical
areas: Mediterranean Europe and Latin America. Nevertheless, prior to
1
This book has been funded by the research projects International Book Trade Networks
in the Hispanic Monarchy. 1501–1648 (HAR2017-82362-P), and Credit Market and the
Price Revolution in Spain, A 16th Century Bubble? (FEDER UPO-1261964).
R. Kirman, ‘Introduction: The Risks, Rewards and Perils of Specialisation’, in Specialist
Markets in the Early Modern Book World, ed. R. Kirwan and S. Mullins (Leiden, 2015), 1.
N. Maillard-Álvarez (*) • M. Cachero

Pablo de Olavide University, Seville, Spain
e-mail: nmaialv@upo.es; mcacvin@upo.es
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 1

Switzerland AG 2023
M. Cachero, N. Maillard-Álvarez (eds.), Book Markets in
Mediterranean Europe and Latin America, New Directions in Book
History, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-13268-1_1
2 N. MAILLARD-ÁLVAREZ AND M. CACHERO
the analysis of the particularities of these book markets, we need to under-

stand the real nature of Early Modern trade.
Since the fifteenth century, commercial exchange was characterised by
hazardous routes, long distances, difficulties in communication and, con-
sequently, asymmetries in information. These problems seemed to be
amplified when considering commercial exchange by sea through the
Mediterranean, or even worse, the Atlantic. The risk involved in these
transactions required a high degree of sophistication in the organisation of
trade in order to reduce transaction costs.2 Furthermore, the system of
fairs developed in the European continent during the Middle Ages deeply
contributed to the intensification of the commercial flow producing what
scholars have named the Commercial Revolution.3 The periodic meeting
of traders generated growth in commercial transactions and facilitated the
development of distribution networks and the popularisation of the sys-
tem of sending goods to a correspondent on consignment or creating
large companies with branches in different cities and permanent factories.4
Commercial innovations were transferred to the trade with Latin America
where permanent agents and the consignment system coexisted together
with alternative forms of organisation.5 For instance, the presence in com-
mercial transactions of non-professional merchants acting as agents
became very popular. Carters, sailors, masters, artisans, bureaucrats and
even clerics, traded as a secondary occupation to obtain extra income.
The intensification of trade required the development of credit instru-
ments and new forms of legal association. Not only the diffusion of bills of
2
As Chaudhuri states, ‛the systematic organisation of multifaceted forms of long-distance
trade was aimed at reducing transaction costs’, K. N. Chaudhuri, K. N., ‛Reflections on the
organising of pre-modern trade’ in The Political Economy of Merchant Empires, ed. J. Tracy
(Cambridge, 1991), 421–442.
3
See, for instance, R. S. Lopez, The Commercial Revolution of the Middle Ages, 950–1350
(New Jersey, 1971) or some of the works by R. de Roover in J. Kishner (ed.) Business,
Banking and Economic Thought in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe: Selected Studies
of Raymond de Roover, (Chicago, 1974), and J. D. Tracy, The Rise of Merchant Empires:
Long-distance Trade in the Early Modern World, 1350–1750 (Cambridge, 1993).
4
The consignment system was used most heavily in the Baltic area, where the organisation
passed through individual merchants with professional independent agents. On the contrary,
in the Mediterranean, the large company system was preferred.
5
Among these alternative organisational forms, we find the merchant coalitions studied by
Avner Greif. In Greif’s opinion, market-institutions that encourage cooperation produce
growth in investments and trade flows. The reduction of uncertainty is the consequence of
rules of behaviour observed by all members. Merchant members of these coalitions trusted
each other and thus engaged in contracting between them to preserve their reputation as
future profits depended on it. For more information, see A. Greif, Institutions and the Path
to the Modern Economy (Cambridge, 2006).
1 INTRODUCTION: THE CIRCULATION OF BOOKS DURING THE EARLY… 3
exchange but also the proliferation of all sorts of different credit contracts
and partnership agreements reduced the risk assumed by traders.6 These
instruments were constantly used by book merchants, as some of the fol-
lowing chapters will demonstrate.
Regarding distribution networks and financial instruments, books per-
formed the same as the rest of the commodities. Nevertheless, following
the invention of the printing press, a major shift took place in the European
book market during the fifteenth century. This technical innovation did
not only alter the books production process but also meant that the strate-
gies and mechanisms deployed for the trade in manuscripts became inad-
equate for distributing an increasing number of printed books.7 The
imbalance between supply and demand caused many new businesses to
fail.8 Higher investment required by the printing industry and the neces-
sity to reach customers beyond the local scope favoured the internationali-
sation of the European book market from an early stage.9 The spread of
the printing press also provoked a hierarchical organisation of the new
industry through Europe, in which a large quantity of the books con-
sumed by readers was printed in only a few centres.10 At the same time, the
integration of different book markets was facilitated by networks of print-
ers and booksellers who were responsible for connecting distant places in
Europe and beyond. In addition to this, local producers and merchants
6
These contracts could be enforced before the Court but also at the notary office. The
notarial institution was responsible for the dynamism of Early Modern trade, providing flex-
ibility and innovative solutions to commercial conflicts. This circumstance allowed merchants
to carry out multiple economic and financial transactions at the notary office. See
P. T. Hoffman, G. Postel-Vinay y J. L. Rosenthal, Dark Matter Credit: The Development of
Peer-to-Peer Lending and Banking in France (Princeton, 2019); Montserrat Cachero, ‛El
poder para cobrar en las Indias y el control remoto de los deudores’ in La Globalización
escrita: Usos hispanos en la América Colonial, ed. E. López Gómez, M. Salamanca, and
B. M. Tanodi de Chiapero (Madrid, 2015), 47–56; G. Jiménez-Montes, A Dissimulated
Trade Northern European Timber Merchants in Seville (1574–1598) (Leiden, 2022).
7
J. L. Flood, ‛Volentes sibi comparare infrascriptos libros impresos… Printed books as a
commercial commodity in the fifteenth century’, in Incunabula and their readers. Printing,
selling and using books in the fifteenth century, ed. K. Jensen (London, 2003), 139–151.
8
In those early years, as Andrew Pettegree conveyed, ‛many who put their hopes in print
found only ruin’, A. Pettegree, The Book in the Renaissance (New Haven, 2010), 44. See also
P. Nieto, ‛Geographie des Impressions Europèennes du XVe siècle’, in Revue Française
d’histoire du livre (118–121), 2004, 125–173.
9
L. Febvre and H-J.Martin, La Aparición del Libro (Mexico City, 2005), 262–264.
10
A. Pettegree, ‛Centre and Periphery in the European Book World’, in Transactions of the
Royal Historical Society, Sixth Series (18), 2008,101–128.
coexisted and played a significant role,11 along with the second-hand mar-
ket.12 In general terms, we can detect a higher degree of specialisation in
consolidated markets and more flexibility in emerging ones.
During this time, traders had to deal with political and religious institu-
tions. Institutions have played a central role in the explanation of eco-
nomic growth in the long run, especially since Douglass North was
awarded the Nobel Prize in 1993. They can be defined as the set of rules
governing transactions and consequently influencing how the economy
works.13 The relevance of institutions lies in their ability to influence
behaviour and incentives, thereby explaining failure or success.14 Efficient
institutions can decrease the costs of transacting, increasing commercial
exchange and economic growth.15
For instance, privileges are crucial institutions in understanding early
modern transactions. Privileges had their origin in Roman law; the system is
inspired by the idea of control and authority. Only the ruler had the right to
decide who could access the market of a certain commodity. We can find
examples in the exploitation of salt mines in America, and the distribution
11
B. Rial Costas (ed.), Print Culture and Peripheries in Early Modern Europe. A
Contribution to the History of Printing and the Book Trade in Small European and Spanish
Cities (Leiden, 2013).
12
C. Palmiste, ‘La compra de libros usados y de bibliotecas privadas en algunas librerías
sevillanas en la primera mitad del siglo XVIII’, La Memoria de los Libros. Estudios sobre la
Historia del Escrito y de la Lectura en Europa y América, II, P. Cátedra and M.L. López-Vidriero,
eds. (Salamanca, 2004). For the case of Latin America, this topic has been addressed by
I. García Aguilar, ‘Saberes compartidos entre generaciones: Circulación de libros usados en
Nueva España durante los siglos XVII y XVIII’, in Fronteras de la Historia (24–2), 2019,
196–220.
13
North distinguishes between politically determined formal institutions and informal
institutions which emerged because of individual decisions in the market. D. C. North,
‛Institutions, Transaction Costs, and the Rise of Merchant Empires’ in The Political Economy
of Merchant Empires, ed. J. Tracy (Cambridge, 1991), 22–40.
14
D. Acemoglu and J. A. Robinson, Why Nations Fail. The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and
Poverty (London, 2012).
15
Daaron Acemoglu affirms that efficient institutions produce economic growth since the
right institutional framework can transform individual talent into success. D. Acemoglu,
S. Johnson, and J. A. Robinson, ‛Reversal of Fortune: Geography and Institutions in the
Making of the Modern World Income Distribution’, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 117
(4), 2002, 1231–1294. D. Acemoglu, S. Johnson, and J. A. Robinson, ‛The Rise of Europe:
Atlantic Trade, Institutional Change, and Economic Growth’, The American Economic
Review, 95 (3), 2005, 546–579.
of dye materials, spices or medicinal herbs.16 Privileges were applied for the
first time at the book market by mid-fifteenth century in Venice and Milan
limiting the print of a book for a certain period of time.17 The idea underly-
ing those privileges was to avoid falsification of books, however, very soon,
privilege holders enjoyed the advantage of supplying the market in exclusiv-
ity. The organisational model, carried out in accordance with the mercantil-
ist ideas of the time, became very popular and, not only the Italian States
but also the Portuguese monarchy or the Spanish crown applied privileges
to the production or distribution of multiple commodities.18
Alongside the different chapters of this book, economic and cultural his-
torians contributed to this volume, analysing crucial aspects related to the
production, distribution and control of books in a historical context charac-
terised by the permanent negotiation with political and religious institu-
tions.19 It is well known that books were protected and, at the same time,
were closely monitored by the authorities in Early Modern times because
they were aware of the dangers associated with their distribution and
16
The geographical dimensions of America prompted a change in the regulation of the
new territories. The direct exploitation of such a huge territory was a cost that the monarchy
could simply not afford, and this lack of economic resources forced the Spanish monarchy to
design a more complex system of economic extraction. The new system was also inspired by
the royal monopoly, but direct exploitation was put into private hands. The Crown received
benefits in the form of taxes, but the risk was assumed by economic agents. Indeed, the big-
gest journeys and expeditions—including Cortés in Mexico and Pizarro in Peru—were
financed by merchants and bankers, not by the Crown. See J. M. Oliva Melgar, El Monopolio
de Indias en el siglo XVII y la Economía Andaluza: La Oportunidad que Nunca Existió
(Huelva, 2004).
17
F. Ammannati, ‘I privilegi come strumento di politica economica nell’Italia della prima
età moderna’, in Privilegi librari nell’Italia del Rinascimento, ed. E. Squassina and A. Ottone
(Milano, 2019), 17–38.
18
For the Spanish case see F. de Los Reyes Gómez, ‘Con Privilegio: La Exclusiva de Edición
del Libro Antiguo Español’, in Revista General de Información y Documentación, 11–2
(2001), 163–200. In Portugal see A. Moreira de Sá (ed.), Indice do livros proibidos en
Portugal no século XVI (Lisboa, 1983); for trade in general C. Rei, ‛The Organization of
Merchant Empires: Portugal, England and the Netherlands’, Working Paper, Department of
Economics, Boston, 2009, Rei explains differences in trading organisation in different terms,
she affirms that ‛if the king is flush with capital, he chooses to maintain control, but if not, he
franchises out the organisation delegating control to the merchants’.
19
The collection of essays gathered here is a selection of those presented at the International
Conference Institutions and Book Markets during the Early Modern Period: Between Regulation
and Promotion, held in February 2020 at the University Pablo de Olavide. The aim of the
conference was to analyse the interaction between those who produced and commercialised
books and the authorities, national or local, civil, or religious.
consumption. Printers and booksellers lived in a politically and religiously

fragmented world where boundaries often shifted. The changing institu-
tional settings contributed towards shaping relationships in the book mar-
ket. Some agents were persecuted and punished by the authorities, while
others cooperated with them (willingly or forced by circumstances), and
quite a few moved in a grey area which allowed them to dodge danger and
thrive in business.20 Especially, the aim of this book is to shed some light on
the incentives and barriers faced by book agents to develop their activities
and expand their business networks and opportunities. To do so, we have
focused on two geographical areas that were strongly connected during the
Early Modern period, although they have been unevenly studied by schol-
ars: the European Mediterranean and Latin America.
During all the Early Modern period, and particularly during the fif-
teenth and sixteenth centuries, Italy played a major role in the European
book world. Its prolific printing industry, mainly located in the city of
Venice, allowed for the development of strong commercial networks that
soon connected the production centres with local and distant markets.21
The expansion of those networks was facilitated by the acceleration of
commercial exchanges, the use of financial instruments, and the new forms
of associations that we have already mentioned. For instance, we
observe the settlement of important companies for printing and selling
books that expanded their branches from Italy through different European
markets, such as the Giunti or the Portonariis.22
20
A few examples of this can be found in C. Griffin, Journeymen-Printers, Heresy, and the
Inquisition in Sixteenth Century Spain (Oxford, 2005).
21
The works on Early Modern Italian book markets are countless. Nevertheless, the
English-speaking audience might find an updated and thorough study of this topic in
A. Nuovo, The Book Trade in the Italian Renaissance (Leiden, 2013). The project Early
Modern Book Trade offers open access to database and publications regarding the economic
and juridical framework of European book markets, with a particular emphasis on Italy and
Venice (https://emobooktrade.unimi.it). For the incunabula period, we can count on the
crucial research deployed by the fifteenth-century Book Trade Project (http://15cbooktrade.
ox.ac.uk/project/).
22
The Giunti are studied in this book by Andrea Ottone. For the different branches of this
Venetian family, see the works by William Pettas, A History and Bibliography of the Giunti
(Junta) Printing Family in Spain. 1514–1628 (New Castle, 2004); The Giunti of Florence: A
Renaissance Printing and Publishing Family (New Castle, 2013). Regarding the Portonariis,
who from Trino (Piedmont) expanded their networks to Venice, Lyon, Castile, and Mexico,
see M.C. Misiti, ‘Una porta aperta sull’Europa: i de Portonariis tra Trino, Venezia e Lione.
Ricerche premiliminari per l’avvio degli annali’, Il Bibliotecario, III, 1–2 (2008), 55–91.
The early development of a consolidated book industry with an easy

access to capitals and strong merchant networks, allowed the Venetians to
play a significant role in far-away book markets. Their major markets were
in Italy, Spain, Portugal, Hungary and Poland,23 all of them Catholic ter-
ritories with feeble printing industries. As a matter of fact, from an early
stage, Iberian book markets relied on Italian printing presses to supply the
growing demand for books. Frequently, Spanish authors and authorities
trusted Venetian printers to produce their works, even assuming the incre-
ment in production cost.24 At the same time, networks expanded from
Italian production centres to the Iberian Peninsula distribution centres,
such as Medina del Campo or Seville, towards the Atlantic. The presence
of Italian printers and booksellers in Iberian and Latin American markets
would be particularly relevant during the sixteenth century.25
The decay of the Venetian printing industry, especially clear since
1620–30,26 impacted the territories under the Habsburg empire, that
would increasingly depend on Northern markets, such as Antwerp and
Amsterdam, to supply their demand during the seventeenth century.
Nevertheless, the importation of Italian books to the Iberian Peninsula
would maintain its relevance during the entire Early Modern period.27
Eastern Mediterranean territories were even more dependent on Italian,
and particularly Venetian, printing presses.28 Those territories were, dur-
ing most of the Early Modern period, under the rule of the Ottoman
sultans. On the contrary to Central and Western Mediterranean, or even
Latin America, Eastern Mediterranean combined political unity with
23
A. Pettegree, The Book in the Renaissance (New Haven, 2011), 66–67.
24
N. Maillard-Álvarez, ‘Venecia y Holanda en los Circuitos del Comercio Español del
Libro. Siglos XVI-XVII’, Repúblicas y Republicanismo en la Europa Moderna. Siglos XVI-
XVIII (Madrid, 2017), 485–506 (490–491).
25
Besides the already mentioned Giunti and Portonariis, we find numerous Italian printers
and booksellers in Iberia and Latin America. For this second territory, we can highlight the
case of the first printer to work in Mexico City, the Italian Giovanni Paoli (known as Juan
Pablos). A. Millares Carlo and J. Calvo, Juan Pablos. Primer Impresor que a esta Tierra Vino
(Mexico City, 1953).
26
M. Infelise, ‘La Crise de la Librairie Vénetiénne. 1620–1650’, Le Livre et l’Historien:
Études Offertes en l’Honneur du Professeur Henri-Jean Martin (Geneva, 1997), 343–352.
27
P. Rueda, ‘La venta de libros italianos en Madrid en tiempos de Felipe II: el catálogo de
Simone Vassalini (1597)’, JLIS.it, 9, 2 (2018). For the eighteenth century see, P. Cátedra,
Tace il Testo, Parla il Tipografo. Tre Stvdi Bodoniani (Salamanca, 2017).
28
An analysis of the academic literature on this topic might be found in the chapter by
Alexandra Laliberté de Gagné in this book.
religious fragmentation, and the ideological division of the territory had

an impact on the book market.
While there is a long and consolidated tradition of book history studies
in Italy embracing all the different aspects of the discipline, the develop-
ment of book history in the West and Eastern European Mediterranean, as
well as in Latin America, has experienced fluctuations. In the case of the
Iberian Peninsula and Latin American countries, during the nineteenth
and the early twentieth centuries scholars focused their studies on printing
press production rather than on the circulation or consumption of books.
Works by Konrad Haebler on the first printers in Spain and Portugal,29
Joaquín García Icazbalceta on Mexico City,30 Francisco Escudero on the
printing press in Seville,31 Cristóbal Pérez Pastor about Toledo32 or Sousa
Viterbo on sixteenth-century Portuguese printers are good examples of
this.33 The cases are plentiful, such as the several monographs by the
Chilean José Toribio Medina devoted to the printing press in Latin
America,34 or the extraordinary Manual del librero hispano americano, by
the Catalan bibliographer Antonio Palau i Dulcet.35 The individual effort
of these scholars was outstanding, providing valuable information,
29
K. Haebler, Impresores primitivos de España y Portugal (Madrid, 2005). The first English
edition was published in 1897.
30
J. García Icazbalceta, Bibliografía Mexicana del Siglo XVI (Mexico City: FCE, 1981).
The work was originally published in 1886.
31
F. Escudero y Perosso, Tipografía Hispalense. Anales Bibliográficos de la Ciudad de
Sevilla (Madrid, 1894). There is a facsimile edition (Seville, 1999).
32
C. Pérez Pastor, La Imprenta en Toledo (Madrid, 1887); C. Pérez Pastor, La Imprenta
en Medina del Campo (Madrid, 1895).
33
S. Viterbo, O Movimento Tipográfico em Portugal no Século XVI: Apontamentos para a
sua história (Coimbra, 1924).
34
The relentless pursuit of documentation about colonial Latin America in different librar-
ies and archives (including the General Archive of Indies in Sevilla) was the base for the
famous works on the printing press that José Toribio Medina published in his own workshop
in Santiago de Chile: La Imprenta en la Habana. 1707–1810 (1904); La Imprenta en Lima.
1584–1824 (1904); La Imprenta en Cartagena de las Indias. 1809–1820 (1904); La Imprenta
en Manila desde sus orígenes hasta 1810 (1904); La Imprenta en Guatemala. 1660–1821
(1906); Historia de la Imprenta en los Antiguos Dominios Españoles de América y
Oceanía (1958).
35
The 35 volumes published between 1923 and 1945 offer an alphabetically ordered
account of the printed production in Spain and Spanish America during early modern and
modern times. A. Palau i Dulcet, Manual del Librero Hispano-americano: Bibliografía
General Española desde la Invención de la Imprenta hasta nuestros tiempos con el valor comer-
cial de los impresos (Barcelona, 1923–1945).
although their perspective was mainly descriptive and erudite. They were
focused on discussing the first city to host a printing press in the Iberian
Peninsula, rather than its social context. Modern digital means might have
replaced those early studies; however, despite their obvious faults and
errors, imputable to the scarcity of resources and the somehow narrow
perspective, they have been and still are useful tools for present-day book
historians.
It was not until the second half of the twentieth century, under the
influence of French historiography,36 and quite often with the lead of
French historians,37 when we witnessed a gradual renovation of book his-
tory in Iberia and Latin America, which is particularly clear since the
1980s. A new generation of scholars, working in different university
departments (bibliography, social and cultural history, literature), helped
to widen the scope of book history studies in Spanish and Portuguese.
Many new publications, especially in the 1990s and early twenty-first cen-
tury, addressed the study of literacy and readers. Countless journal articles,
book chapters and monographs about individual readers or communities
of readers were often based on the systematic analysis of inventories.38 In
these works, the local or national scope has usually prevailed, although
some studies have chosen a more comparative and qualitative
perspective.39
Likewise, the early works on the printing press gave way to more
resourceful and exhaustive studies, and usually focused on the detailed
36
As such, the influence of L’Aparition du Livre by Lucien Febvre and Henri-Jean Martin
in 1958 was crucial, first translated to Spanish in 1962 in Mexico.
37
Christian Peligry, director of the Mazarine Library in Paris, studied the book market in
Spain during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and the diffusion of Spanish books in
France; François López focused his works on eighteenth-century Spanish publishing indus-
try. Although the prestigious Hispanist Bartolomé Bennassar was not a specialist in book
history, his works on readership has enlightened the discipline in the Spanish-speaking world.
More recently, Roger Chartier has also made great contributions to the advance of the disci-
pline in Spain and Latin America.
38
Good examples of this are offered by M. Peña, El Laberinto de los Libros. Historia
Cultural de la Barcelona del Quinientos (Madrid, 1997), or P. Cátedra and A. Rojo,
Bibliotecas y Lecturas de Mujeres Siglo XVI (Salamanca, 2004). For Italy, see T. Plebani, Il
Genere dei Libri. Storie e Rappresentazioni della Lettura al Femmenile e al Maschile tra
Medioevo e Età Moderna (Milan, 2001).
39
In this sense, we can highlight the work on the use of manuscripts in Spain during the
Early Modern period by F. Bouza, Corre Manuscrito. Una Historia Cultural del Siglo de Oro
(Madrid, 2001); or the studies on popular readeres, such as A. Castillo (ed.), Cultura Escrita
y Clases Subalternas: Una Mirada Española (Oiartzun, 2001).
catalogue of the printing production in one particular town or a remark-

able printer or family of printers. The book series Tipografía Española
published by Arco/Libros is a good example of this,40 but not the only
one.41 The mobility of early modern printers and the strong connections
between different markets make some of those studies quite complemen-
tary. That is the case of two recent pieces of research that addressed the
study of the printing press production in Seville and Mexico City during
the sixteenth century.42 In fact, the printing industry of these two cities
was deeply connected, as Clive Griffin proved in his already classical text
about the Cromberger family.43 In the Spanish case, book history devel-
oped remarkable production at the end of the twentieth century and the
beginning of the twenty-first, with numerous scholars, conferences, book
series and academic journals devoted to the discipline.44 To this biblio-
graphical corpus, we may add interesting prosopographical studies on
Spanish and Latin American printers.45
40
This collection includes titles focused on different Spanish cities, such as Salamanca,
Madrid, Burgos and Alcalá de Henares, and more thematic studies, including a catalogue of
incunables by Julián Martín Abad, Cum Figuris. Texto e Imagen en los Incunables Españoles.
Catálogo Bibliográfico y Descriptivo (Madrid, 2018).
41
There are countless examples, from the study of Gothic typography in Valladolid
[M. Casas del Álamo, La Imprenta en Valladolid. Repertorio Tipobibliográfico. 1501–1560
(Valladolid, 2021)] to the comprehensive catalogue of institutional religious libraries in
Portugal [L. Giurgevich and H. Leitâo, Clavis Bibliothecarum. Catálogos e Inventários de
Livrarias de Instituçôes Religiosas em Portugal até 1834 (Lisboa, 2016)].
42
A. Castillejo, La Imprenta en Sevilla en el siglo XVI. 1521–1600 (Seville, 2019), and
G. Rodríguez Domínguez, La Imprenta en México en el siglo XVI (Merida, 2018).
43
C. Griffin, The Crombergers of Seville: The History of a Printing and Merchant Dynasty
(Oxford, 1989).
44
Together with the aforementioned book series by Arco/Libro, the publishing houses
Trea or Calambur created their own collections devoted to book history and bibliography,
together with their own academic journals, Litterae (Calambur: 2001–2003), and Cultura
Escrita y Sociedad (Trea: 2005–2010), where not only Spanish, but a large number of foreign
scholars, published their works.
45
J. Delgado Casado, Diccionario de Impresores Españoles. Siglos XV-XVII (Madrid, 1996);
S. Establés Susán, Diccionario de Mujeres Impresoras y Libreras de España e Iberoamérica entre
los Siglos XV y XVIII (Zaragoza, 2018). Additionally, online catalogues offer a crucial tool
for present-day book historians. The Iberian Book Project is a research database that aims to
generate a Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Short Title Catalogue (www.iberian.ucd.
ie); The Catálogo Colectivo del Patrimonio Bibliográfico, gathers a description of books
located in Spanish libraries from the fifteenth to the twentieth century (http://catalogos.
mecd.es/CCPB/ccpbopac/).
Another field that has flourished during the last decades is the study of
the legislation, institutions and practices deployed to control the written
word. This is indeed one of the more fertile areas of study in book history
nowadays, with remarkable examples in Latin America, Portugal, Spain
and Italy, where the religious and institutional frameworks hold many
similarities, despite obvious differences. Not without conflict, all those ter-
ritories remained within the Catholic denomination throughout the early
modern period. As R. Po-Chia Hsia has rightfully pointed out, book pro-
duction and book use in Catholic countries in recent times have started to
receive the same attention that they have traditionally deserved in
Protestant areas.46 Nevertheless, if there is one field of study that has cap-
tured the attention of researchers in the Catholic world, it is that of con-
trol and censorship, and in particular the involvement of the Inquisition.
Early Modern authorities, both in Catholic and non-Catholic coun-
tries, were concerned about the increasing number of books and other
kinds of printed texts circulating in the European continent and the
Americas. Very soon they developed different forms of control and censor-
ship systems.47 Censorship had a lasting effect on European culture, as
many scholars have emphasised.48 The emergence of studies about the
Inquisition by the end of the twentieth century was responsible for increas-
ing interest in the relationship between this infamous institution and cul-
ture. This interest gave rise to classical studies by scholars such as Virgilio
Pinto, who made a detailed analysis of the procedure of book control.49
According to Pinto, inquisitorial censorship in Spain evolved during the
sixteenth century, not only to confront the growing threat posed from
46
R. Po-Chia Hsia, The World of Catholic Renewal. 1540–1770 (Cambridge, 2005), 172.
47
An overview on the politics for banning books can be found in M. Infelise, I libri proibiti
(Roma, 1999).
48
G. Fragnito, Church, Censorship and Culture in Early Modern Italy (Cambridge, 2001),
11. See also Girogio Caravale, Libri Pericolosi: Censura e Cultura Italiana in Età Moderna
(Milan, 2022).
In this context, the reader might find very interesting the considerations about the effect
of censorship over the stability of texts made by D. Montes, V. Lillo and M.J. Vega, Saberes
Inestables: Estudios sobre Expurgación y Censura en España en los Siglos XVI y XVII
(Madrid, 2018).
49
V. Pinto Crespo, Inquisición y Control Ideológico en la España del Siglo XVI (Madrid,
1983). The same topic was addressed by many others, such as M. Defourneaux, Inquisición
y Censura de Libros en la España del Siglo XVIII (Madrid, 1973); A. Alcalá, Literatura y
Ciencia ante la Inquisición Española (Madrid, 2001); or E. Gacto, Inquisición y Censura: el
Acoso a la Inteligencia en España (Madrid, 2006).
abroad by Protestantism but also to control internal intellectual produc-

tion. The result of this was the reinforcement of the Spanish Inquisition,
which since 1570 had spread its tentacles towards Latin America. Another
outstanding example of this wide bibliography is the eleven volumes with
the different indexes of forbidden books published by Jesús Martínez de
Bujanda.50 Thanks to the work of remarkable scholars, we now have a
thorough knowledge of the role played by the Inquisition in the control
of books, despite knowing that results were not always as strict as they
were meant to be. Indeed, some studies have stressed the differences
between theory and practice in the development of everyday censorship.51
Following this path, recent works have shed light on the agents of censor-
ship, sometimes unexpected,52 and have developed a comparative and
transnational approach.53
The Inquisition was not the only institution involved in book control
during the Early Modern period.54 In the case of Spain and Latin America,
we draw on the extraordinary two volumes prepared by Fermín de los
Reyes, which included the transcription and analysis of the legislation
regarding books and readership in those territories from the fifteenth to
the eighteenth centuries.55 It is difficult to find a similar work in more
50
Index des Livres Interdits (Quebec: University of Sherbrooke, 1985–2002). Bujanda also
published recently a one-volume monograph that includes a comprehensive analysis of the
history of the Spanish Inquisition’s Indexes, together with a catalogue of all the books for-
bidden or mutilated in all those Indexes. J. Martínez de Bujanda, El Índice de Libros
Prohibidos y Expurgados de la Inquisición Española. 1551–1819 (Madrid, 2016).
51
That is the case of M. Peña, Escribir y Prohibir. Inquisición y Censura en los Siglos de Oro
(Madrid, 2015).
52
M. Albisson (ed.), Los Agentes de la Censura en la España de los Siglos XVI y XVII
(Berlin, 2022). For instance, the involvement of printers and booksellers in the control sys-
tem has been well documented and studied in both Mediterranean Europe and Latin
America.
53
M. J. Vega and J. Weiss (eds.), Reading and Censorship in Early Modern Europe.
(Barcelona, 2010).
54
For Italy, a good example of this can be found in C. Lodoli, Della Censura dei Libri.
1730–1736. Edited by Mario Infelise (Venice, 2001).
55
F. de los Reyes Gómez, El libro en España y América. Legislación y Censura. Siglos
XV-XVIII (Madrid, 2000). Other scholars have studied the royal policy regarding books,
such as J. García Oro and M.J. Portela, La Monarquía y los Libros en el Siglo de Oro (Alcalá,
1999); or the system for licensing books by the Spanish Crown, like in F. Bouza, Dásele
Licencia y Privilegio. Don Quijote y la Aprobación de Libros en el Siglo de Oro (Madrid, 2012).
The actual implementation of the Crown rules regarding books, at least for the case of the
sixteenth century, has been addressed by R. Pérez García, La Imprenta y la Literatura
Espiritual Castellana en la España del Renacimiento (Gijón, 2006).
politically fragmented territories, such as Italy, or in areas with a different

legislative tradition, like the Eastern Mediterranean.
The book market has also been the object of countless studies, in both
the Mediterranean and Latin America. Book historians in those areas have
profited from the great richness and diversity of archival and librarian
sources, sometimes with a common origin which facilitates comparative
studies. In Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries, we find remark-
able studies on the book markets, a considerable number of them focusing
on a specific market,56 others with a more comprehensive scope.57 We also
find extensive studies on booksellers tracing the connections between dif-
ferent parts of the Spanish and Portuguese monarchies and the core
centres of the European printing industry.58 For instance, the Salamanca
Booksellers Company was founded following the role of the Grand
Compagnie des Libraires in Lyon, by native and foreign booksellers, and
many of the latter came from Lyon or Venice, where they kept familiar and
commercial links.59
Nevertheless, if there is a relevant topic in book history where the inter-
national perspective has prevailed since at least the mid-twentieth century,
it is the Iberian Atlantic book market. Books arrived in the New World
with the first European ships. The rapid increment in demand from the
American markets forced the Spanish monarchs to regulate the circulation
of books in the Atlantic. The legal framework designed and implemented
by the political authorities shaped cultural exchanges between Spain and
its colonies for centuries. In this research arena, one of the pioneers was
Irving Leonard, who analysed the book trade system between Spain and
56
The cases are, again, countless. However, we can highlight studies such as P. Berger,
Libro y Lectura en la Valencia del Renacimiento (Valencia, 1987), or V. Bécares, Librerías
Salamantinas del Siglo XVI (Salamanca, 2007). For Portugal, see A. Anselmo, Estudos de
História do Livro (Lisboa, 1997).
57
Y. Clemente San Román and N. Bas Martín (eds.), Del Autor al Lector. El Comercio y
Distribución del Libro Medieval y Moderno (Zaragoza, 2017).
58
A. Cayuela: Alonso Pérez Montalbán. Un Librero en el Madrid de los Austrias (Madrid,
2005); A. González-Sánchez and N. Maillard-Álvarez, Orbe tipográfico. El Mercado del Libro
en la Sevilla de la Segunda Mitad del Siglo XVI (Gijón, 2003).
59
M. de la Mano, Mercaderes e Impresores de Libros en la Salamanca del Siglo XVI
(Salamanca, 1998); The strong connections between the Iberian book market and the Low
Countries have been studied by, among others, V. Bécares, Arias Montano y Plantino. El
Libro Flamenco en la España de Felipe II (León, 1999); and A. Sánchez del Barrio (ed.), El
Comercio del Libro entre los Países Bajos y España durante los Siglos XVI y XVII
(Valladolid, 2016).
Latin America.60 Over the past decades, some researchers with solid
knowledge of archival sources, such as Carlos A. González Sánchez and,61
especially, Pedro Rueda Ramírez, have continued to broaden our knowl-
edge on this topic,62 studying the legislation, the procedures, the agents,
and the practices on the Atlantic book trade. From the other side of the
ocean, Nora Jiménez has focused her most recent research on the expan-
sion of the distribution networks in the Viceroyalty of New Spain during
the sixteenth century, while Cristina Gomez has analysed similar issues
from the Bourbonic period.63
During the last decades, the historiographical production about book
history in Latin America has indeed increased. Consolidated scholars and a
new generation of young researchers with solid international careers have
situated this huge region on the map of Book History in its own right. In
South America, we might find studies on the role of books and readers in
the transmission of scientific knowledge during the eighteenth century,64
together with several works devoted to the development of censorship and
the Inquisition, or the printing industry in colonial Peru.65 In Brazil, differ-
ent scholars have focused their research on topics such as libraries, readers,
and book trade from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries.66
60
Particularly his fascinating work, Books of the Brave. Being an Account of Books and of Men
in the Spanish Conquest and Settlement of the Sixteenth-Century New World (Berkeley, 2012).
The book was first published in 1949.
61
C. A. González, New World Literacy: Writing and Culture Across the Atlantic, 1500–1700
(Lewisburg, 2011).
62
P. Rueda, Negocio e Intercambio cultural: El comercio de libros con América en la Carrera
de Indias. Siglo XVII (Seville, 2005).
63
C. Gómez Álvarez, Navegar con Libros. El comercio de libros entre España y Nueva
España. 1750–1820 (Madrid, 2011).
64
M. Labarca, ‛Los libros de Medicina en el Chile del siglo XVIII: Tipologías, Propietarios
y Dinámicas de Circulación’, in Anuario Colombiano de Historia Social y de la Cultura (47),
2020, 345–371; and M. Labarca, ‛La biblioteca del bachiller Miguel Jordán de Ursino’, in
N. Maillard-Álvarez and Manuel F. Fernández-Chaves (eds.), Bibliotecas de la Monarquía
Hispánica en la Primera Globalización. Siglos XVI-XVIII (Zaragoza, 2021), 93–124.
65
P. Guivóbich, Censura, Libros e Inquisición en el Perú Colonial. 1570–1754 (Seville,
2003).; P. Guivóbich, Imprimir en Lima durante la Colonia. Historia y Documentos.
1584–1750 (Madrid, 2019). English-speaking readers might find also very interesting his
article ‛Books, Readers, and Reading Experiences in the viceroyalties of New Spain and Peru,
sixteenth to eighteenth centuries’, in Early Readers, ed. M. Hammond, (Edinburg, 2020).
66
M. Abreu, ‘La Libertad y el Error. La Acción de la Censura Luso-Brasileña (1769–1834)’,
in Cultura Escrita y Sociedad (7) 2008, 118–141; L. C. Villalta, Usos do Livro no Mundo
Luso-Brasileiro sob as Luzes: Reformas, Censura e Contestaçóes (Bello Horizonte, 2015).
Traditionally forgotten areas such as Ecuador, Colombia, Panamá and

Venezuela have recently captured the interest of researchers.67 Those ter-
ritories were integrated at the beginning of the eighteenth century in the
viceroyalty of New Granada, and since then they developed prosperous
cities, with religious and educational institutions demanding books. New
Spain is another fertile area for studies on book history, with numerous
researchers who have emphasised the role of printers and booksellers dur-
ing the colonial times and the use of American native languages in the
Mexican printing press,68 the evolution of the book market in different
moments of the colonial period,69 the cultural exchanges between the Low
Countries and New Spain,70 or the development of censorship.71 Finally,
we might highlight those works that have stressed a comparative and com-
prehensive perspective over the Latin American territory, both regarding
readers and book markets.72
67
This is the case of A. J. Campillo Pardo, Censura, Expurgo y Control en la Biblioteca
Colonial Neogranadina (Bogotá, 2016), or Cristina Soriano, who has studied readers and
book trade in eighteenth-century Caracas. C. Soriano, ‛Bibliotecas, Lectores y Saber en
Caracas durante el Siglo XVIII’, in El Libro en Circulación en la América Colonial, ed.
I. García and P. Rueda (Mexico, 2014); ‛Buscar libros en una ciudad sin imprenta. Redes de
circulación de libros en la Caracas de finales del siglo XVIII’, in El Libro en Circulación en el
Mundo Moderno en España y Latinoamérica, ed. P. Rueda (Madrid, 2012). 109–127. See
also her book Ties of Revolution: Information, Insurgencies, and the Crisis of Colonial Rule in
Venezuela (Albuquerque, 2018), where she analysed how the circulation of information in
the Caribbean area contributed to the rise of revolutionary feelings in Venezuela.
68
M. Garone, Historia de la tipografía colonial para lenguas indígenas (Mexico, 2014),
and Historia de la imprenta y la tipografía colonial en Puebla de los Ángeles (1642–1821)
(México, 2015).
69
N. Jiménez, ‘Cuentas Fallidas, Deudas Omnipresentes. Los Difíciles Comienzos del
Mercado del Libro Novohispano’, in Anuario de Estudios Americanos (71) 2014, 423–446.
70
C. Manrique, El Libro Flamenco para Lectores Novohispanos. Una historia Internacional
de Comercio y Consumo Libresco (Mexico City, 2019); Also in México, Manuel Suárez has
studied scholar readers in colonial times in De erutidione Americana: Prácticas de Lectura y
Escritura en los Ámbitos Académicos Novohispanos (Mexico City, 2019).
71
Idalia García Aguilar has an impressive record of research on the rich written patrimony
of Mexico, including studies on censorship, readership, booksellers, and the second-hand
book market. Among her recent works, see, La Vida Privada de las Bibliotecas: Rastros de
Colecciones Novohispanas. 1700–1800 (Bogotá, 2020).
72
P. Rueda and I. García Aguilar (eds.), El Libro en Circulación en la América Colonial
(Mexico City, 2014); N. Maillard-Álvarez and Manuel F. Fernández-Chaves (eds.), Bibliotecas
de la Monarquía Hispánica en la Primera Globalización. Siglos XVI-XVIII (Zaragoza,
2021); or A. Gehbald and N. Jiménez (eds.), Libros en Movimiento. Nueva España y Perú.
Siglos XVI-XVIII (Michoacán, 2021).
The next chapters depict the Early Modern book markets in different
settings, from fifteenth-century Venice to nineteenth-century Portuguese
Africa. We consider books not only as cultural objects but also as com-
modities. That is why we have chosen to focus on the legal and commer-
cial strategies that fostered and framed the circulation of books. Our
contribution seeks to challenge the national boundaries that have been
traditionally predominant in the field. In this regard, the following chap-
ters not only put emphasis on some of the main European centres of the
book (such as Venice) but also on more peripheric territories (the Iberian
Peninsula or Eastern Mediterranean), and we have especially included
contributions that put together Europe and Latin America, two circuits
totally symbiotic but that quite often have been studied separately.
The first part of the book explores the privilege markets in Europe and
the Americas. In the first chapter, Angela Nuovo focuses on the evolution
of the book privileges system in the Republic of Venice, where it was used
as a tool to avoid competition, and compares it with Rome where its pri-
mary goal was to serve religious control. Moving from Europe to the
Americas, Agnes Gehbald explores a different use of privileges: the role of
hospitals and orphanages as the beneficiaries of book privileges in the
Spanish Monarchy, specifically for the production and distribution of
primers and grammars. The printing of these highly demanded texts cre-
ated revenues for charities, but their management was not exempt from
conflicts that the author explores in places as distant as Buenos Aires and
Zaragoza. Printing privileges for calendars in the Spanish Monarchy are
analysed by Natàlia Vilà-Urriza. Like other printed ephemera, only a tiny
proportion of the thousands and thousands of almanacs printed in the
Early Modern period has survived.73 The monopoly of the privilege by the
printer Antonio Sanz for the Iberian Peninsula during the period between
1734 and 1780 allows the author to study the production process of the
calendar, the mechanism for delivering, and, more interestingly, the pos-
sibility to transfer and rent the privilege in different Spanish cities.
The second part of the book explores the economic behaviour of agents
in the book trade, focusing on three examples that show how early mod-
ern book markets could achieve truly international status. The contribu-
tion by Andrea Ottone describes the complex market strategies developed
73
D. McKitterick, ‘Bibliography, Population, and Statistics. A View from the West’, The
Book Worlds of East Asia and Europe, 1450–1850: Connections and Comparisons,
110–166 (124).
by the Giunti publishing house from the end of the fifteenth century.
Their strategy was meant to achieve two goals: firstly, positioning the
printing house on top of the European market; and, secondly, exhibiting
a high-profile reputation for Catholic and academic institutions. The effi-
cient strategy also benefitted from a diversification of production; this way,
each European branch specialised in different editions, discouraging com-
petition among branches and increasing their printing catalogue.
Natalia Maillard-Álvarez and Montserrat Cachero also explore different
strategies displayed at the market, although focusing on distribution and
sales rather than production. The authors describe the book market in
Mexico and its connections with the European production and distribu-
tion centres. Different inquiries into a procedure followed at the Mexican
Inquisitorial Court shed light on the networks developed by book mer-
chants operating in Mexico at the end of the sixteenth century. The
authors use Social Network Analysis to map and analyse the role played by
the different agents in the market, their connections with the European
continent, their business strategies and results, the negotiation with politi-
cal and religious authorities, and the trading routes.
The overseas Portuguese empire between the eighteenth and the nine-
teenth century is the framework for the study by Airton Ribeiro da Silva
Jr. The petitions made in Lisbon to send books to the Portuguese territo-
ries in Africa and Asia allow the author to reconstruct a global market,
affected both by the enlightened policy of the authorities and the agency
of booksellers, mainly from France, who connected the centres of book
production in Europe with Mozambique and Macao.
In the last part, ‘Institutions, Markets, and Incentives’, three chapters
examine the ambivalent responsibility of authorities in different territories
over the book market. First of all, Manuel José Pedraza-Gracia explores
the actions of the Spanish religious authorities as editors in the fifteenth
and early sixteenth centuries. Based on a thorough analysis of archival and
bibliographical documentation, the author proves that the Church acted
as one of the early editors of the Spanish printing industry.
In Eastern Europe, ecclesiastical authorities also played a fundamental
role in the development of the book market, as studied by Alexandra
Laliberté de Gagné in her chapter. In this case, the feud between different
denominations (Catholic and Orthodox) was decisive in the evolution of
book markets. The Greek Orthodox Church had to face a double menace:
the lack of their own printers in the Ottoman territories where most of its
congregation lived, and the competition of Catholic missionaries who

used the Venetian presses for their proselytist activities.
Finally, in the last chapter, Alberto José Campillo Pardo offers a differ-
ent perspective of the book market in the Spanish Monarchy and the
responsibility of the Inquisition in it. By exploring the licences for books
sent to Cartagena de Indias (nowadays Colombia) in the eighteenth cen-
tury, Campillo proves how the Inquisitorial control, far from being static,
presented different strategies and practices derived from negotiations
between the Inquisition, the Crown, and merchants.
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The main building of this latter palace was only one story high, on
purpose, it seems, that the Empress should not be annoyed by
staircases. Here her rooms were larger than in the Winter Palace,
especially the study in which she received the reports. In the first
days of May she always went incognito to Tsárskoe Seló, and from
there she returned, also incognito, in September to the Winter
Palace. Her apartments in Tsárskoe Seló were quite large and
tastefully furnished. All know the magnificent gallery in which the
Empress frequently took a walk, particularly on Sundays when the
park was filled with a large crowd of people that used to come down
from St. Petersburg. She received the reports in the cabinet, or in the
sleeping-room.
The Empress’s time and occupations were arranged in the
following manner: She rose at seven, and was busy writing in her
cabinet until nine (her last work was on the Senate Regulations).
She once remarked in her conversation that she could not live a day
without writing something. During that time she drank one cup of
coffee, without cream. At nine o’clock she passed into the sleeping-
room, where almost in the entrance from the boudoir she seated
herself in a chair near the wall. Before her stood a table that slanted
towards her and also to the opposite direction, where there was also
a chair. She then generally wore a sleeping-gown, or capote, of
white gros de Tours, and on her head a white crêpe bonnet which
was poised a little towards the left. In spite of her sixty-five years, the
Empress’s face was still fresh, her hands beautiful, her teeth all well
preserved, so that she spoke distinctly, without lisping, only a little
masculinely. She read with eyeglasses and a magnifying glass.
Having once been called in with my reports, I found her reading in
this way. She smiled and said to me: “You, no doubt, do not need
this apparatus! How old are you?” And when I said: “Twenty-six,” she
added: “But we have, in our long service to the Empire, dulled our
vision, and now we are of necessity compelled to use glasses.” It
appeared to me that “we” was used by her not as an expression of
majesty, but in the ordinary sense.
Upon another occasion she handed me an autograph note which
contained some references for her Senate Regulations for
verification, and said: “Laugh not at my Russian orthography. I will
tell you why I have not succeeded in mastering it. When I came here,
I applied myself diligently to the study of Russian. When my aunt,
Elizabeth Petróvna, heard of this, she told my Court mistress that I
ought not to be taught any more,—that I was clever enough anyway.
Thus, I could learn Russian only from books, without a teacher, and
that is the cause of my insufficient knowledge of orthography.”
However, the Empress spoke quite correct Russian, and was fond of
using simple native words, of which she knew a great number. “I am
very happy,” she said to me, “that you know the order of the
Chancery. You will be the first executor of my Regulations before the
Senate. But I caution you that the Chancery of the Senate has
overpowered the Senate, and that I wish to free it from the Chancery.
For any unjust decisions, my punishment for the Senate shall be: let
them be ashamed!” I remarked that not only the Senate, but also
other bureaus that are guided by the General Reglement, are
hampered in the transaction of their business by great
inconveniences and difficulties that demand correction. “I should like
very much to see those inconveniences and difficulties of which you
speak to me in such strong terms. The General Reglement is one of
the best institutions of Peter the Great.” Later on, I presented to her
Highness my notes upon the General Reglement, which I read to her
almost every afternoon of her residence in Tsárskoe Seló in 1796,
and which were honoured by her undivided august approval. (These
notes must be deposited with other affairs in the Archives of the
Foreign College.)
After occupying her seat, of which I spoke above, the Empress
rang a bell, and the valet of the day, who uninterruptedly remained
outside the door, entered and, having received his order, called in
the persons. At that time of the day, the Chief Master of Police and
the Secretary of State waited daily in the boudoir; at eleven o’clock
there arrived Count Bezboródko; for the other officers certain days in
the week were set apart: for the Vice-Chancellor, Governor,
Government Procurator of the Government of St. Petersburg,
Saturday; for the Procurator-General, Monday and Thursday;
Wednesday for the Superior Procurator of the Synod and Master
General of Requests; Thursday for the Commander-in-Chief of St.
Petersburg. But in important and urgent cases, all these officers
could come any other time to report.
The first one to be called in to the Empress was the Chief Master
of Police, Brigadier Glázov. He made a verbal report on the safety of
the capital and other occurrences, and presented a note, written at
the office irregularly and badly on a sheet of paper, containing the
names of arrivals and departures on the previous day of people of all
conditions who had taken the trouble to announce their names at the
toll-house, for the sentinels stopped no one at the toll-house, nor
inquired anything of them,—in fact there existed then no toll-gates;
anybody received a passport from the Governor at any time he
asked for it, and without any pay, and could leave the city whenever
he wished: for this reason the list of arrivals and departures never
could be very long. After the Chief Master of Police left, the
Secretaries of State who had any business had themselves
announced by the valet, and were let in one by one. I was one of
them. Upon entering the sleeping-room, I observed the following
ceremony: I made a low obeisance to the Empress, to which she
responded with a nod of her head, and smilingly gave me her hand,
which I took and kissed, and I felt the pressure of my own hand; then
she commanded me to take a seat. Having seated myself on the
chair opposite, I placed my papers on the slanting table, and began
to read. I suppose the other reporting officers acted in the same way,
when they entered the room of the Empress, and that they met with
the same reception.
About eleven o’clock the other officers arrived with their reports, as
mentioned above, and sometimes there came Field-Marshal Count
Suvórov Rýmnikski, who then, after the conquest of Poland, resided
at St. Petersburg. When he entered, he first prostrated himself three
times before the image of the Holy Virgin of Kazán, which stood in
the corner, to the right of the door, and before which there burned an
undying lamp; then he turned to the Empress, prostrated himself
once before her, though she tried to keep him from it, and, taking him
by the hand, lifted him and said: “Mercy! Alexander Vasílevich, are
you not ashamed to act like that?” But the hero worshipped her and
regarded it as his sacred duty to express his devotion to her in that
manner. The Empress gave him her hand, which he kissed as a
relic, and asked him to seat himself on the chair opposite her; two
minutes later she dismissed him. They used to tell that Count
Bezboródko and a few others prostrated themselves in the same
way before her, but not before the Holy Virgin.
At these audiences in the Winter and Tauric Palaces, the military
officers wore uniforms, with their swords and shoes, but boots on
holidays; civil officers wore during week-days simple French coats,
but on holidays gala dresses; but at Tsárskoe Seló, both the military
and civilians wore dress-coats on week-days, and only on holidays
the former put on uniforms, and the latter French coats with their
swords.
The Empress was busy until noon, after which her old hair-
dresser, Kozlóv, dressed her hair in her interior boudoir. She wore
her hair low and very simple; it was done up in the old fashion, with
small locks behind her ears. Then she went into the boudoir, where
we all waited for her; our society was then increased by four
spinsters who came to serve the Empress at her toilet. One of them,
M. S. Aleksyéev, passed some ice to the Empress, who rubbed her
face with it, probably in order to show that she did not like any other
washes; another, A. A. Polokúchi, pinned a crêpe ornament to her
hair, and the two sisters Zvyerév handed her the pins. This toilet
lasted not more than ten minutes, and during that time the Empress
conversed with some one of the persons present, among whom
there was often the Chief Equerry, Lev Sergyéevich Narýshkin, and
sometimes Count Strogonóv, who were her favourite society. Having
bid the company good-bye, the Empress returned with her maids
into the sleeping-room, where she dressed herself for dinner, with
their aid and with the aid of Márya Sávishna, while we all went home.
On week-days the Empress wore simple silk dresses, which were all
made almost according to the same pattern, and which were known
as Moldavian; the upper garment was usually of lilac or greyish
colour, and without her decorations,—her lower garment white; on
holidays she wore a brocade gown, with three decorations—the
crosses of St. Andrew, St. George and St. Vladímir, and sometimes
she put on all the sashes that belong to these decorations, and a
small crown; she wore not very high-heeled shoes.
Her dinner was set for two o’clock. During the week there were
generally invited to dinner, of ladies, the Maid of Honour Protásov
and Countess Branítski; of gentlemen, Adjutant-General P. V.
Pássek, A. A. Narýshkin, Count Strogonóv, the two French
emigrants, the good Count Esterházy and the black Marquis de
Lambert, at times Vice-Admiral Ribas, Governor-General of the
Polish provinces Tutolmín, and finally the Marshal of the Court,
Prince Baryatínski. On holidays there were invited also other military
and civil officers who lived in St. Petersburg, down to the fourth
class, and, on special celebrations, down to the sixth class. The
ordinary dinner of the Empress did not last more than an hour. She
was very abstemious in her food: she never breakfasted, and at
dinner she tasted with moderation of not more than three or four
courses; she drank only a glass of Rhine or Hungarian wine; she
never ate supper. For this reason she was, in spite of her sixty-five
years and industrious habits, quite well and lively. At times, indeed,
her legs swelled and sores were opened up, but that only served to
purify her humours, consequently was advantageous for her health.
It is asserted that her death took place solely through the closing up
of these sores.
After dinner all the guests immediately departed. The Empress
was left alone: in summer she sometimes took a nap, but in winter
never. She sometimes listened, until the evening assembly, to the
foreign mail which arrived twice a week; sometimes she read a book,
or made cameo imprints on paper; this she did also during the
reading of her mail by P. A., or Count Markóv, or Popóv; but the latter
was rarely invited to read, on account of his poor pronunciation of
French, though he was nearly always present in the secretary’s
room. At six o’clock there assembled the aforementioned persons,
and others of the Empress’s acquaintance whom she specially
designated, in order to pass the evening hours. On Hermitage days,
which were generally on Thursdays, there was a performance, to
which many ladies and gentlemen were invited; after the
performance they all went home. On other days the reception was in
the Empress’s apartments. She played rocambole or whist, generally
with P. A., E. V. Chertkóv and Count Strogonóv; there were also
card-tables for the other guests. At ten o’clock the Empress retired to
her inner apartments; at eleven she was in bed, and in all the rooms
reigned a deep silence.
Gavrílo Petróvich Kámenev. (1772-1803.)
Kámenev wrote very few poems, and his reputation rests
on his ballad Gromvál, which is remarkable for its flowing
verse, the first two lines being in dactylic measure, and the
last two lines of each stanza in anapests. Its main importance,
however, lies in the fact that it was the first successful attempt
at Romantic verse in the Russian language. Púshkin said of
him: “Kámenev was the first in Russia who had the courage to
abandon the classic school, and we Russian Romantic poets
must bring a fitting tribute to his memory.”
GROMVÁL
In my mind’s eye I rapidly fly, rapidly piercing the dimness of time; I

lift the veil of hoary antiquity, and I see Gromvál on his good horse.
The plumes wave upon his helmet, the tempered arrows clang in
his quiver; he is borne over the clear field like a whirlwind, in
burnished armour with his sharp spear.
The sun is setting behind the mountains of flint, the evening is
descending from the aërial heights. The hero arrives in the murky
forest, and only through its tops he sees the sky.
The storm, shrouded in sullen night, hastens to the west on sable
pinions; the waters groan, the oak woods rustle, and centennial oaks
creak and crack.
There is no place to protect oneself against the storm and rain;
there is no cave, no house is seen; only through the dense darkness
now glistens, now goes out, through the branches of the trees, a little
fire in the distance.
With hope in his heart, with daring in his soul, slowly travelling
through the forest towards the fire, the hero arrives at the bank of a
brook, and suddenly he sees nearby and in front of him a castle.
A blue flame gleams within and reflects the light in the flowing
stream; shadows pass to and fro in the windows, and howls and
groans issue dully from them.
The knight swiftly dismounts from his horse and goes to the grass-
covered gate; he strikes mightily against it with his steel spear, but
only echoes in the forest respond to the knocking.
Immediately the fire within the castle goes out, and the light dies in
the embrace of darkness; the howls and groans grow silent, too; the
storm increases, the rain is doubled.
At the powerful stroke of his mighty hand the firmness of the iron
gates gives way: the latches are broken, the hinges creak, and
fearless Gromvál goes in.
He unsheathes his sword, ready to strike, and, groping, goes into
the castle. Quiet and gloom lie over all, only through the windows
and chinks the whirlwind whistles.
The knight cries out in anger and in grief: “Ferocious wizard,
greedy Zlomár! You have compelled Gromvál to wander over the
world, you have stolen Rognyéda, his companion!
“Many a kingdom and land have I passed, have struck down
mighty knights and monsters, have vanquished giants with my
mighty hand, but have not yet found my beloved Rognyéda!
“Where do you dwell, evil Zlomár? In wild mountain fastnesses, in
caves, in forests, in murky underground passages, in the depth of
the sea do you hide her from my view?
“If I find your habitation, wicked magician, evil sorcerer, I will drag
Rognyéda out of her captivity, I will pull out your black heart from
your breast.”
The knight grows silent, and sleep comes over him. Fatigue and
night make him a bed. Without taking off his armour, in the
breastplate and helmet, he kneels down and falls into a deep sleep.
The clouds hurry away, and the storm dies down, the stars grow
dim, the east grows light; the morning star awakes, Zimtsérla blooms
like a crimson rose, but Gromvál is still asleep.
The sun rolls over the vault of heaven, at noon glows with its
heated rays, and the pitch of the pines waters through the bark, but
sleep still keeps Gromvál in its embrace.
The forerunner of the night with olive brow glances from the east
upon the forest and fields, and from an urn sprinkles dew upon the
sward; but sleep still keeps Gromvál in its embrace.
Night, with cypress crown upon its head, in a garment woven of
darkness and stars, walks frowning, over stairs, to its throne; but
sleep still keeps Gromvál in its embrace.
Clouds congest in the vault of heaven, darkness grows thick,
midnight comes on; the hero, awakening from his deep sleep,
wonders when he sees not the crimson dawn.
Suddenly peals roar in the castle like thunder; the walls shake, the
windows rattle, and, as lightnings rapidly flash in the darkness, the
hall is made bright with a terrible fire.
All the doors bang loud as they open: in white shrouds, with
candles in their hands, shadows appear; behind them skeletons
carry in their bony hands an iron coffin.
They place the coffin in the vast hall; immediately the lid flies off,
and the wizard Zlomár, O horrible sight! lies breathless within, with
open eyes.
The floor opens wide, and a hellish fire rises up in a howling
whirlwind and thunder, and, embracing the iron coffin, heats it to a
white glow; Zlomár sighs the heavy sigh of Gehenna.
In his wild, fierce, bloodshot eyes terror is painted, despair and
grief; from his mouth black foam boils in a cloud, but the magician
lies motionless, like a corpse.
The ghosts and skeletons, taking each other’s hands, yell, howl,
laugh, whistle; raving in rapturous orgy, they dance a hellish dance
around his coffin.
Midnight passes in a terrible entertainment, and their groans and
howls thunder ever more horrible. But scarcely has the herald of
morning crowed three times, when ghosts, skeletons and coffin
suddenly disappear.
There is darkness as in the grave, and quiet all around; in the
forest nearby is silence and gloom. Gromvál perplexed, marvels at
the appearance, and wondering does not believe himself.
Suddenly a magic flute is heard, and the sound of the harp strikes
his ears: the vault of the hall bursts open, and a rose-coloured beam,
with its soft light, dispels dense night.
In a light cloud of fragrant vapours, as if a fresh breeze were
blowing and a swan gently gliding high up in the air, a sorceress
softly descends into the hall.
Purer than the lily is her garment; her girdle shines on her waist
like hyacinth; like the twinkle of the gold-gleaming eastern star,
merriment beams in her eyes.
With a pleasant voice Dobráda speaks: “Sad knight, submit to your
fate! Zlomár is no longer; fate has for ever cleared the world from
that wrongdoer.
“Into the abyss of hell he has been hurled for ever; the jaws of
Gehenna have swallowed him; with the gurgling of the lava and the
roar of the fire, the abyss alone will hear his howl and groan.
“Death, transgressing the law of nature, has not deprived the
magician’s body of feeling: the shades of persons by him destroyed
nightly torment him here in the castle.
“Knight, hasten to your Rognyéda! To the south of the forest, in a
sandy plain, in a steel prison of Zlomár’s castle, two winged Zilants
watch her.
“Accept this magic horn from me; it has the power to close the
jaws of monsters. But listen! You cannot save Rognyéda without
shedding her blood,—thus the fates have decreed.”
The magic strings sound again; the cloud is wafted upwards with
Dobráda. Struck dumb by this speech, and beside himself, Gromvál,
like a statue of stone, follows her with his glances.
Holding the emerald horn in his hand, in bitter resentment, the
hero exclaims: “Ill-starred gift of the faithless sorceress, you promise
happiness to me by the death of Rognyéda!
“No! I tremble at the very thought, and my heart flies a sacrifice to
her. But, Gromvál, obey the dictum of fate, and hasten to destroy
Zlomár’s sorcery.
“If you cannot save Rognyéda, lay the castle in ruins, vanquish the
Zilants,—shed your heroic blood for her, and crown your love with an
heroic death!”
A beautiful morning with radiant beam gilds the tops of century
oaks. Turning his horse to the midday sun, our knight leaves both
the castle and forest.
Ravines, cliffs, rapids, crags, groan under the heavy beats of the
hoofs; dense dust like a cloud and whirling in a pillar flies upwards
where Gromvál races.
Through the gloomy pass of a rocky mount the knight rides into a
vast steppe: an ocean of sand spreads before his view, and in the
distance, it seems mingled with the sky.
No wind stirs the sandy waves; heat breathes there its pestiferous
breath; no shrubs rustle there, nor brooks babble: all is quiet and still
as in the cemetery at midnight.
Through that wilderness, those terrible fields, no road leads, no
tracks are seen; only in the east one can discern a steep mountain,
and upon it a mighty castle stands out black in the distance.
Struggling three days with thirst and heat, the hero passes the
barrier of death; on his worn-out steed, and in a bloody perspiration,
he slowly reaches the foot of the mountain.
Over slippery paths on overhanging cliffs that threaten to crash
down into the valley, slowly ascending the narrow footpath above an
abyss, Gromvál reaches the top and castle.
Zlomár has built this castle with the power of Gehenna and the
spirits of Hell. The turrets that tower above black cliffs announce
destruction and evil death.
With Rognyéda in his heart, with bravery in his soul, Gromvál, like
a fierce storm, breaks the hinges of the cast-iron doors, and with his
tempered spear enters the terrible castle.
Furious he advances,—under his mighty heel dead bones and
skulls crack; ravens, birds of the night and bats are awakened in the
mossy crevices of the walls.
They hover like a cloud above the castle, and their terrible cries
shake the air; the Zilants, hearing Gromvál’s arrival, begin to howl
and whistle, and flap their wings.
Opening their jaws, they fly against him; their stings issue from
their mouths like spears; they rattle their scales, bending their tails,
and stretch out their destructive claws from their feet.
The hero blows his emerald horn,—the sound deafens them, and
they fall like rocks; their wings are clipt, their jaws are closed; falling
into a sleep of death, they lie in mounds.
In rapture the knight flies to the dungeon to embrace Rognyéda
with flaming heart; but instead, an enormous door is opened, and a
giant, mailed in armour, comes to meet him.
His furious glances are comets in the dark; brass is his corselet,
lead his warclub; grey moss of the bog is his beard, a black forest
after the storm the hair on his head.
Swinging his club with a terrible might, the giant lets it fall on
Gromvál and strikes his valiant head: the echo shakes, reverberating
through the castle.
The helmet clangs and is shattered to pieces; sparks issue from
his dark eyes. From the stroke the club is bent as a bow, but
Gromvál, like a rock, does not move from the spot.
The sword flashes in his heroic hand, and strikes the wretch like a
thunderbolt; his strong brass would have broken to splinters, but the
blade glides down his magic coat of mail.
The giant roars in evil madness, breathes flames, trembles with
anger; he swells the muscles of his powerful shoulders, and
threatens to crush Gromvál in his claws.
Death is unavoidable, destruction near; his terrible hands touch his
corselet; but Gromvál, seizing his leg like an oak, makes him totter,
and brings him to his fall.
The giant falls like a crumbling tower, and shakes all the castle
with his terrible cry; the walls recede, the battlements fall; he is
prostrate on the ground, and has dug a grave in the damp earth.
Grasping his throat with his mighty hand, Gromvál thrusts his
sword into his jaws; the giant’s teeth gnash against the steel; he
roars and groans, and writhes in convulsions.
Black foam and crimson blood lash and gush from his mouth;
furious with suffering, battling with death, he digs the earth with his
feet, trembles, lies in the agony of death.
Mingling in a boiling stream the giant’s blood wells up; a gentle
vapour, rising from it in a cloud, forms the outline of fair Rognyéda.
The roses in her cheeks, the charm in her eyes, the crimson lips
beckon for a kiss; her hair, falling like velvet over her shoulders, veils
her swan’s breast.
Gromvál marvels at this miracle: does he see a vision or a real
being? Approaching her with hope and hesitation, he presses not a
dream, but Rognyéda to his breast.
Filled with passionate rapture, Gromvál addresses his love with
tender words: “Long, oh, long have I sought you, Rognyéda, and
have, like a shadow, wandered over the wide world!”
Drawing a deep breath, she says: “The evil magician, the cunning
Zlomár, impelled by his despicable passion, brought me to this
enchanted castle.
“Here he touched me with his magic wand, and deprived me of
memory and feelings. Falling immediately into a mysterious trance, I
have ever since been shrouded in deepest darkness.”
Taking Rognyéda by her hand, Gromvál softly descends to the foot
of the mountain. He seats her behind him on his steed, and like an
arrow flies back on the road.
Deep darkness covers the castle; thunders roar furiously in the
night; stormy whirlwinds, tearing themselves away from their chains,
howl, and the flinty ribs of the rock tremble.
With a terrible roar the earth bursts open, and the towers fall into
the bottomless abyss; the Zilants, dungeon, giants are overthrown:
Gromvál has vanquished the magic of Zlomár.
Vladisláv Aleksándrovich Ózerov. (1770-1816.)
Ózerov entered the military school when a child, left it as a
lieutenant in 1788, and then was made adjutant to the director
of the school, Count Anhalt, who died in 1794. His first literary
venture was an In Memoriam to the director, written in French.
He then tried himself in odes and shorter songs, of which only
the Hymn to the God of Love rises above mediocrity. He
scored his first great success in his tragedy Œdipus at
Athens, which produced a stirring effect upon the audience.
This was followed by Fingal, the subject being from Ossian.
But the drama that most affected his generation was Dimítri
Donskóy, which appeared opportunely on the eve of
Napoleon’s invasion, in 1807. The element of tearfulness, or
“sentimentality,” as Karamzín called it, which Ózerov was the
first to introduce into the Russian tragedy, and the patriotic
subject which he developed in his Dimítri Donskóy combined
to make his plays very popular, though his verse is rather
heavy and artificial.
DIMÍTRI DONSKÓY
ACT I., SCENE I. DIMÍTRI AND THE OTHER PRINCES, BOYÁRS AND
GENERALS
Dimítri. Russian princes, boyárs, generals, you who have crossed

the Don to find liberty and, at last, to cast off the yokes that have
been forced upon us! How long were we to endure the dominion of
the Tartars in our land, and, content with an humble fate, sit as
slaves on our princely throne? Two centuries had nearly passed
when Heaven in its anger sent that scourge against us; for almost
two centuries the foes, now openly, now hidden, like hungry ravens,
like insatiable wolves, have been destroying, burning, plundering us.
I have called you here to avenge us: the time has now come to repay
the foe for our calamities. The Kipchák horde has, like a gigantic
burden, been lying on Russian shoulders, spreading desolation and
terror all around, but now, heavy by its own weight, it has fallen to
pieces. Civil strife, dissension and all the ills which heretofore had
brought the Russian land to utter weakness, have now penetrated
the horde. New khans have arisen who have torn themselves loose
from it; but the insatiable tyrants, having barely risen, threaten our
land. The most insatiable of them and most cunning, Mamáy, the
accursed ruler of the Trans-Don horde, has risen against us in an
unjust war. He is hurrying against us, and perhaps with to-morrow’s
dawn will appear before our camp. But seeing the sudden union of
the Russian forces, his heart was disturbed, and his mind misgave
him, so he decided to send first an embassy to us. Friends of Dimítri,
do you advise to receive them? Or, remaining firm in our heroic
intention, shall we answer Mamáy in front of our army, when the first
bold onslaught of the Russians would resound upon the earth and
would frighten the Tartars?
Tverskóy. Let us give the answer before the army in the field of
battle! None of us, O princes, can be more anxious than I to avenge
ourselves on the inhuman foe. Whose family can compare with the
Tverskóys in misfortunes they have borne? My grandfather and his
sire, after endless tortures, lay their heads in the graves through the
treachery of the infidel, and their ashes groan under the power of the
horde. Grand Prince of Russia, you have called us hither not to enter
into parley with Mamáy, but to decide in battle and end all discord
with him....
Byelózerski. Oh, how happy am I to have lived to see this day, to
contemplate here the concord and love among the princes, and the
unanimous zeal in your hearts against the enemy! I, about to bear
my age into the yawning grave, will be able to bring hope to the
departed fathers, that the honour of the Russian land is to be
reinstated, that her power and glory is to return. O shades of
Vladímir, and you, shades of Yarosláv, ancestral heads of princely
houses! In the lap of the angels you will rejoice, as you foresee the
blessed time when the disunited nation of Russian tribes, uniting with
one soul into one whole, will triumphantly appear a threatening giant,
and united Russia will give laws to the world! Dimítri, your victory is
certain! No, never before has such an army been gathered in so far-
reaching a camp, either by your grandfather Iván, or Simeón the
Terrible, or your meek father! I, the old leader of the forces of
Byelózersk, have never seen Russia lead out such numbers of bold
warriors. Of all the Russian princes, Olég alone has remained in
idleness at Ryazán, and without interest in the expedition; his ear
alone is deaf to the common groan. May the memory of those perish
whose spirit can with quiet eye see the country’s woes, or rather, let
their name with disgrace and endless shame pass to late posterity!
Yet, my lord, however flattering your success may be, my advice is to
receive the Tartar embassy, and if we can establish peace by paying
a tribute to Mamáy.... (All the princes express dissatisfaction.)
Dimítri. O Prince of Byelózersk, what do you propose? Fearing
strife, to acknowledge the Tartar’s power by paying a shameful
tribute?
Byelózerski. To spare the priceless Christian blood. If we conquer
Mamáy, look out, the hordes will once more unite for our common
woe; beware, this temporarily successful exploit will again rouse their
ambitious spirit, and they will perceive at last how injurious for their
ambition their strife is, which separates their khans. The murders,
fire, slaughter of wives and children which the Tartars have
perpetrated against us, in their opinion, give the hordes a right over
us. They deem Russia to be their patrimony. Seeing our bravery,
they will stop their disorders, and will soon, united, bring misery on
the Russians. Rather give them a chance to weaken in their
destructive discord; let us gather strength in the peaceful quiet and,
warding off the chances of war, choose peace instead of useless
victory.
Dimítri. Oh, better death in battle than dishonourable peace! Thus
our ancestors thought, thus we, too, will think. Those times are past
when timid minds saw in the Tartars a tool of Heaven, which it is
senseless and improper to oppose. In our days honour and the very
voice of faith arm us against the tormentors. That voice, that
prophetic voice of faith, proclaims to us that an immortal crown
awaits the fallen in battle, that through the grave they pass to eternal
joy. O Sérgi, pastor of souls, whom the groans of fellow-citizens have
so often disturbed in your hermit prayers, and whose tears have so
abundantly flowed lamenting the fate of the innocent, O you who with
sacred hand blessed us for the impending battle! In your hermit cell,
where you pass your humble days, listen to my words: inspired by
you, they will inflame the Russian hearts to seek here liberty or the
heavenly crown! ’Tis better to cease living, or not to be born at all,
than to submit to the yoke of a foreign tribe, than with the name of
payers of tribute to flatter their greed. Can we with such slavery avert
our misfortunes? He who pays a tribute is weak; he who evinces a
weak spirit invites arrogant lust to insult. But I am ready to receive
the Khan’s messenger and to bring him before the assembly of the
princes, not to listen to the shameless propositions of Tartar
arrogance, but to announce to him the resolve for war, that he may
read valour in our brows, and, shuddering, bear terror into Mamáy’s
camp.
Smolénski. The whole assembly announces assent to your advice.
Dimítri. The messenger awaits the decision near the tent. You,
Brénski, bring in the Tartars that have come to us!
Prince Iván Mikháylovich Dolgorúki. (1764-1823.)
Iván Mikháylovich Dolgorúki was the grandson of Prince
Iván Aleksyéevich, the favourite of Peter II. (see p. 233). In
1791 he left the army with the rank of brigadier. He was then
made Vice-Governor of Pénza, where he sought relief from
the humdrum life of a provincial town in reading and in writing
poetry. One of the first of his poems to attract attention was
the envoi To my Lackey; he became universally known
through his My Penza Fireplace. In 1802 he was appointed
Governor of Vladímir. Not long after his return to Moscow he
was forced to retire before the advancing Frenchmen. During
his retreat he wrote his Lament of Moscow. His best poem is
probably his Legacy. While not a poet of the first order,
Dolgorúki displayed great originality and much depth of
feeling. This is what he himself said of his poems: “In my
poems I wished to preserve all the shades of my feelings, to
see in them, as in a picture, the whole history of my heart, its
agitation, the change in my manner of thinking, the progress
of my thoughts in the different ages of my life, and the gradual
development of my small talents. Every verse reminds me of
some occurrence, or thought, or mood that influenced me at
such and such a moment.... That is the key to the originality
which many are so kind as to ascribe to my productions.” The
Legacy was translated by Sir John Bowring.
THE LEGACY
When time’s vicissitudes are ended,

Be this, be this my place of rest;
Here let my bones with earth be blended,
Till sounds the trumpet of the blest.
For here, in common home, are mingled
Their dust, whom fame or fortune singled;
And those whom fortune, fame passed by,
All mingled, and all mouldering;—folly
And wisdom, mirth and melancholy,
Slaves, tyrants,—all mixt carelessly.
List! ’Tis the voice of time,—Creation’s

Unmeasured arch repeats the tone;
Look! E’en like shadows, mighty nations
Are born, flit by us, and are gone!
See! Children of a common father,
See stranger-crowds, like vapours gather;
Sires, sons, descendants, come and go.
Sad history! Yet e’en there the spirit
Some joys may build, some hopes inherit,
And wisdom gather flowers from woe.
There, like a bee-swarm, round the token

Of unveiled truth shall sects appear,
And evil’s poisonous sting be broken
In the bright glance of virtue’s spear.
And none shall ask, what dormitory
Was this man’s doom, what robes of glory
Wore he, what garlands crowned his brow,—
Was pomp his slave?—Come now, discover
The heart, the soul,—Delusion’s over,—
What was his conduct?—Answer now!
Where stands yon hill-supported tower,

By Fili, shall I wake again,
Summoned to meet Almighty Power
In judgment, like my fellow-men.
I shall be there, and friends and brothers,
Sisters and children, fathers, mothers,—
With joy that never shall decay;
The soul, substantial blessing beaming
(All here is shadowy and seeming),
Drinks bliss no time can sweep away.

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Book Markets in Mediterranean Europe

and Latin America: Institutions and

ISSN 2634-6117 ISSN 2634-6125 (electronic)

ISBN 978-3-031-13267-4 ISBN 978-3-031-13268-1 (eBook)

Part I Privileged Markets 19

PART II Economic Behaviour at the Market 89

PART III Institutions, Markets, and Incentives 171

Alberto José Campillo Pardo Campillo Pardo has a Master’s degree

at All Souls College, University of Oxford, in 2012, and recipient of an

Introduction: The Circulation of Books

Natalia Maillard-Álvarez and Montserrat Cachero

N. Maillard-Álvarez (*) • M. Cachero

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 1

the analysis of the particularities of these book markets, we need to under-

consumption. Printers and booksellers lived in a politically and religiously

The early development of a consolidated book industry with an easy

r­eligious fragmentation, and the ideological division of the territory had

catalogue of the printing production in one particular town or a remark-

abroad by Protestantism but also to control internal intellectual produc-

politically fragmented territories, such as Italy, or in areas with a different

Traditionally forgotten areas such as Ecuador, Colombia, Panamá and

congregation lived, and the competition of Catholic missionaries who

In my mind’s eye I rapidly fly, rapidly piercing the dimness of time; I

Dimítri. Russian princes, boyárs, generals, you who have crossed

When time’s vicissitudes are ended,

List! ’Tis the voice of time,—Creation’s

There, like a bee-swarm, round the token

Where stands yon hill-supported tower,

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Part I Privileged Markets 19

PART II Economic Behaviour at the Market 89

PART III Institutions, Markets, and Incentives 171

religious fragmentation, and the ideological division of the territory had