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Giovanni Andrea Vavassore and the Business of Print in Early Modern Venice Natalie Lussey Submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Edinburgh 2015 Volume One Declaration This is to certify that the work contained within this thesis is entirely my own. Due acknowledgement has been made in the text to all other material used. No part of this thesis has been submitted for any other degree or qualification. Signed: (Natalie Lussey) 2 Abstract This thesis reconstructs the activities of a single print workshop, active from 1515 to 1593. By providing a microcosm of the Venetian print industry, it both challenges preconceived notions of the inherent competitiveness of the industry, and demonstrates the sheer variety of printed material available for purchase during the sixteenth century. Chapter One begins by reconstructing the life of Giovanni Andrea Vavassore, a woodcarver from a small Bergamasco town in the Venetian terraferma. By charting his integration into a new city and a new trade, it questions the role of religious and social institutions in enabling ‘foreigners’ to feel at home in Venice, and considers the push and pull factors at work among immigrants in the Renaissance. Chapter Two focuses closely on reconstructing the workshop’s output, using a catalogue of works compiled for this thesis to demonstrate the quantity and variety of printed material sold in a sixteenth century printshop. It also gives an insight into the world of the Venetian bottega and the artisans who worked within it. Chapter Three highlights the importance of networking and collaboration in the world of Venetian print. By drawing on a selection of illustrations produced by Vavassore for other publishers, it demonstrates the close working relationships – and geographical proximity – that enabled new printers to enter the trade, and continued to support them in the decades that followed. Chapter Four nuances the idea of the network further, demonstrating the importance of copying, and the sharing of resources, in the workshop’s production of maps. It also offers a new perspective on the purchasing habits of people in the Renaissance, questioning why large multi- sheet maps and prints were popular and how they were used. Chapter Five focuses on ‘popular’ books and pamphlets, relating printed material to the contemporary events, interests, and material objects that both inspired and were derived from it. Chapter Six reconstructs the workshop’s interactions with the Venetian authorities, questioning why certain texts and images were protected by Senatorial privileges and others were not. Finally, Chapter Seven charts the impact of religious reform on the workshop across the eight decades of its activity. By focusing on specific case studies, it examines the devotional texts issued by the workshop in the years prior to, during, and after, the meetings of the Council of Trent; and demonstrates the extent to which the activities of a Renaissance printer and his shop were monitored and restricted by the Inquisition. 3 Lay Summary This thesis focuses on the activity and production of a print workshop, active in Venice from 1515 to 1593. As well as reconstructing the life and work of the Renaissance printer Giovanni Andrea Vavassore, it draws on the much larger questions surrounding the production, sale, and consumption of books during this period. By using a variety of source material – including wills, parish records of births and marriages, heresy trials, and surviving books, pamphlets, maps, and printed images – it places this printshop within the urban fabric of sixteenth century Venice, and sheds light on the quantity and variety of printed material available for purchase at this time. Beginning with the man himself, this thesis works outwards from the individual and emphasises the importance of networking and collaboration in both entering a new trade and surviving in it. Active for over eight decades, I question why this workshop survived when so many of the shops owned by Vavassore’s contemporaries did not. By creating a chronology of its activity, I examine the different types of material published by the workshop – from book illustrations to printed maps, popular pamphlets to academic textbooks, and self-help manuals to portable devotional texts – highlighting the interaction between print and contemporary events (including sieges, sacks, and wars), and the meanings attributed to books and pamphlets by their early modern consumers. Finally, I explore the various mechanisms imposed by the Venetian authorities to keep printed material in check. Whilst printers could seek out an early form of copyright protection for their own work, from the mid-sixteenth century the Holy Office – in the guise of both the Inquisition and the Index of Prohibited Books – began to closely monitor and control the kind of books issued from the presses of Venice. This thesis therefore follows the fortunes of a family-run firm in a period of considerable social and religious upheaval, drawing on previously overlooked material to both challenge and contribute to our knowledge of the print industry of Renaissance Venice. 4 Table of Contents Volume One: Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………………...7 List of Illustrations……………………………………………………………………9 Abbreviations and Editing Criteria………………………………………………….14 Introduction………………………………………………………………………….16 Chapter One……………………………………………………………………..…..38 Immigrant Integration and Identity: The Origins of the Vavassore 1.1 Introducing the Vavassore 1.2 Profiling the Parish: Vavassore in San Moisè 1.3 Shaping a Venetian Identity: Membership of the Scuole and Arti 1.4 Conclusion Chapter Two…………………………………………………………………..…….78 Reconstructing the Vavassore Workshop and its Output 2.1 Reconstructing the Vavassore Workshop 2.2 Analysing Output 2.3 Conclusion Chapter Three……...………………………………………………………………..98 Networks and Collaboration in the Vavassore Workshop 3.1 The Printing Network: Comparative Studies 3.1.1 Niccolò Zoppino 3.1.2 The Bindoni 3.1.3 Nicolò and Domenico de Sandri (dal Jesus) 3.2 Tracing the Artistic Foundations of the Vavassore Workshop 3.2.1 The Apochalypsis Ihesu Christi 3.2.2 The Labours of Hercules 3.2.3 Illustrating Books 3.3 Conclusion Chapter Four……………………………………………………………………….132 Mapping the World from the Workshop 4.1 The Map Industry of Venice 5 4.2 The Battle of Marignano Woodcut 4.3 Chorography in Context: Views of Rhodes, Constantinople, Trent and Venice 4.4 Charting Land and Sea: Maps of the World and its Waters 4.5 The Cartographic Network 4.6 Conclusion Chapter Five……………...………………………………………………………...176 Responding to the Market: Vavassore’s Production of “Popular” Books 5.1 Reconstructing the Venetian Market 5.2 Pamphlets, Poems and Wars in Ottava Rima 5.3 Books for the ‘Beautiful and Virtuous’: Pattern Books of Lace and Embroidery 5.4 Conclusion Chapter Six………………………………………………..……………………….216 Printing with the Privilegio: Vavassore and the Venetian Government 6.1 Applying for the Privilegio: Protecting Text and Image 6.2 Other Authorities: The Broader Network of Authors and Editors 6.3 Conclusion Chapter Seven…………………………………………………………………….. 232 Responding to Religious Change: Vavassore and the Inquisition 7.1 Accusations of Heresy: Vavassore’s Dealings with the Venetian Inquisition 7.2 The Freedom of the Press: Vavassore’s Visual Bible 7.3 The Reforming Church: Tridentine Catholicism in Print, 1545 – 1564 7.4 Obeying the Index: Religious Books after Trent 7.5 Conclusion Conclusion………………………………………………………………………... 275 Volume Two: Illustrations.…………………………………………………………………………. 2 Appendix 1…………………………………………..……………………………..101 Catalogue of Works by the Vavassore Workshop Appendix 2…………………………..…………………………………………….159 Print Devices Used by the Workshop Bibliography………………………………………..……………………………...166 6 Acknowledgements Walking such a long and lonely road necessitates the meeting of many Samaritans. The ‘journey’ of my doctorate began with my two supervisors, Stephen Bowd and Jill Burke, who have offered me the wealth of their experience, support, and patience. Their advice and criticism has shaped my thesis, and I am enormously grateful for the time and effort they have put into my supervision. My research would not have been possible without the financial help of a great many bodies, which I am delighted to acknowledge here. My time in Venice was supported by both the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation and the Francis Haskell Memorial Fund; whilst the Fondazione Giorgio Cini generously co-financed my accommodation at the Centro Vittore Branca. Further funding was forthcoming from The Royal Historical Society, the Gilchrist Educational Trust, and the Samuel Kress Foundation, all of