A bookbinder in early seventeenth-century Milan: The shop of Pietro Martire Locarno

Library

Volumn 18, Issue 4, 1996, Pages 306-325

  Stevens, Kevin M ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 0040008199     PISSN: 00242160     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/library/18.4.306     Document Type: Article

References (54)

1. The secondary literature on this subject is vast. For an excellent synthesis of recent studies on the binding trade of late Renaissance Italy see Piccarda Quilici, 'Breve storia della legatura d'arte dalle origini ai nostri giorni. Il Rinascimento: legature italiane', Il Bibliotecario, 13 (1987), 21-57; 14 (1987), 53-106. Also essential are: Tammaro de Marinis, La legatura artistica in Italia nei secoli XV e XVI: notizie ed elenchi, 3 vols (Florence, 1960); Anthony R. A. Hobson, Apollo and Pegasus: An Inquiry into the Formation and Dispersal of a Renaissance Library (Amsterdam, 1975) and idem, Humanists and Bookbinders: The Origins and Diffusion of the Humanistic Bookbinding, 1459-1559 (Cambridge, 1989); Guido Vianini Tolomei, 'I ferri e Ie botteghe di legatori', Legatura romana barocca (Rome, 1991), pp. 31-33 and the illustrative tables; Franca Petrucci Nardelli, 'Legatori Vaticani', in Mercurius in Trivio: studi di bibliografia e di biblioteconomia per Alfredo Serrai net 60° compleanno, ed. by Maria Cochetti (Rome, 1993), pp. 153-61. The following abbreviations have been used in giving references: ASM = Archivio di Stato, Milan; ASDM = Archivio Storico Diocesano, Milan; not. = notarile; f. = filza. I wish to thank Dr Aldo Coletto, Dr Francesco Demasi, Dr Paul F. Gehl, Dr Federico Macchi, Fausto Ruggeri and Dr Laura Zumkeller for their helpful conversation and kind assistance in the course of preparing this paper.
2. The secondary literature on this subject is vast. For an excellent synthesis of recent studies on the binding trade of late Renaissance Italy see Piccarda Quilici, 'Breve storia della legatura d'arte dalle origini ai nostri giorni. Il Rinascimento: legature italiane', Il Bibliotecario, 13 (1987), 21-57; 14 (1987), 53-106. Also essential are: Tammaro de Marinis, La legatura artistica in Italia nei secoli XV e XVI: notizie ed elenchi, 3 vols (Florence, 1960); Anthony R. A. Hobson, Apollo and Pegasus: An Inquiry into the Formation and Dispersal of a Renaissance Library (Amsterdam, 1975) and idem, Humanists and Bookbinders: The Origins and Diffusion of the Humanistic Bookbinding, 1459-1559 (Cambridge, 1989); Guido Vianini Tolomei, 'I ferri e Ie botteghe di legatori', Legatura romana barocca (Rome, 1991), pp. 31-33 and the illustrative tables; Franca Petrucci Nardelli, 'Legatori Vaticani', in Mercurius in Trivio: studi di bibliografia e di biblioteconomia per Alfredo Serrai net 60° compleanno, ed. by Maria Cochetti (Rome, 1993), pp. 153-61. The following abbreviations have been used in giving references: ASM = Archivio di Stato, Milan; ASDM = Archivio Storico Diocesano, Milan; not. = notarile; f. = filza. I wish to thank Dr Aldo Coletto, Dr Francesco Demasi, Dr Paul F. Gehl, Dr Federico Macchi, Fausto Ruggeri and Dr Laura Zumkeller for their helpful conversation and kind assistance in the course of preparing this paper.
3. The secondary literature on this subject is vast. For an excellent synthesis of recent studies on the binding trade of late Renaissance Italy see Piccarda Quilici, 'Breve storia della legatura d'arte dalle origini ai nostri giorni. Il Rinascimento: legature italiane', Il Bibliotecario, 13 (1987), 21-57; 14 (1987), 53-106. Also essential are: Tammaro de Marinis, La legatura artistica in Italia nei secoli XV e XVI: notizie ed elenchi, 3 vols (Florence, 1960); Anthony R. A. Hobson, Apollo and Pegasus: An Inquiry into the Formation and Dispersal of a Renaissance Library (Amsterdam, 1975) and idem, Humanists and Bookbinders: The Origins and Diffusion of the Humanistic Bookbinding, 1459-1559 (Cambridge, 1989); Guido Vianini Tolomei, 'I ferri e Ie botteghe di legatori', Legatura romana barocca (Rome, 1991), pp. 31-33 and the illustrative tables; Franca Petrucci Nardelli, 'Legatori Vaticani', in Mercurius in Trivio: studi di bibliografia e di biblioteconomia per Alfredo Serrai net 60° compleanno, ed. by Maria Cochetti (Rome, 1993), pp. 153-61. The following abbreviations have been used in giving references: ASM = Archivio di Stato, Milan; ASDM = Archivio Storico Diocesano, Milan; not. = notarile; f. = filza. I wish to thank Dr Aldo Coletto, Dr Francesco Demasi, Dr Paul F. Gehl, Dr Federico Macchi, Fausto Ruggeri and Dr Laura Zumkeller for their helpful conversation and kind assistance in the course of preparing this paper.
4. The secondary literature on this subject is vast. For an excellent synthesis of recent studies on the binding trade of late Renaissance Italy see Piccarda Quilici, 'Breve storia della legatura d'arte dalle origini ai nostri giorni. Il Rinascimento: legature italiane', Il Bibliotecario, 13 (1987), 21-57; 14 (1987), 53-106. Also essential are: Tammaro de Marinis, La legatura artistica in Italia nei secoli XV e XVI: notizie ed elenchi, 3 vols (Florence, 1960); Anthony R. A. Hobson, Apollo and Pegasus: An Inquiry into the Formation and Dispersal of a Renaissance Library (Amsterdam, 1975) and idem, Humanists and Bookbinders: The Origins and Diffusion of the Humanistic Bookbinding, 1459-1559 (Cambridge, 1989); Guido Vianini Tolomei, 'I ferri e Ie botteghe di legatori', Legatura romana barocca (Rome, 1991), pp. 31-33 and the illustrative tables; Franca Petrucci Nardelli, 'Legatori Vaticani', in Mercurius in Trivio: studi di bibliografia e di biblioteconomia per Alfredo Serrai net 60° compleanno, ed. by Maria Cochetti (Rome, 1993), pp. 153-61. The following abbreviations have been used in giving references: ASM = Archivio di Stato, Milan; ASDM = Archivio Storico Diocesano, Milan; not. = notarile; f. = filza. I wish to thank Dr Aldo Coletto, Dr Francesco Demasi, Dr Paul F. Gehl, Dr Federico Macchi, Fausto Ruggeri and Dr Laura Zumkeller for their helpful conversation and kind assistance in the course of preparing this paper.
5. The secondary literature on this subject is vast. For an excellent synthesis of recent studies on the binding trade of late Renaissance Italy see Piccarda Quilici, 'Breve storia della legatura d'arte dalle origini ai nostri giorni. Il Rinascimento: legature italiane', Il Bibliotecario, 13 (1987), 21-57; 14 (1987), 53-106. Also essential are: Tammaro de Marinis, La legatura artistica in Italia nei secoli XV e XVI: notizie ed elenchi, 3 vols (Florence, 1960); Anthony R. A. Hobson, Apollo and Pegasus: An Inquiry into the Formation and Dispersal of a Renaissance Library (Amsterdam, 1975) and idem, Humanists and Bookbinders: The Origins and Diffusion of the Humanistic Bookbinding, 1459-1559 (Cambridge, 1989); Guido Vianini Tolomei, 'I ferri e Ie botteghe di legatori', Legatura romana barocca (Rome, 1991), pp. 31-33 and the illustrative tables; Franca Petrucci Nardelli, 'Legatori Vaticani', in Mercurius in Trivio: studi di bibliografia e di biblioteconomia per Alfredo Serrai net 60° compleanno, ed. by Maria Cochetti (Rome, 1993), pp. 153-61. The following abbreviations have been used in giving references: ASM = Archivio di Stato, Milan; ASDM = Archivio Storico Diocesano, Milan; not. = notarile; f. = filza. I wish to thank Dr Aldo Coletto, Dr Francesco Demasi, Dr Paul F. Gehl, Dr Federico Macchi, Fausto Ruggeri and Dr Laura Zumkeller for their helpful conversation and kind assistance in the course of preparing this paper.
6. The secondary literature on this subject is vast. For an excellent synthesis of recent studies on the binding trade of late Renaissance Italy see Piccarda Quilici, 'Breve storia della legatura d'arte dalle origini ai nostri giorni. Il Rinascimento: legature italiane', Il Bibliotecario, 13 (1987), 21-57; 14 (1987), 53-106. Also essential are: Tammaro de Marinis, La legatura artistica in Italia nei secoli XV e XVI: notizie ed elenchi, 3 vols (Florence, 1960); Anthony R. A. Hobson, Apollo and Pegasus: An Inquiry into the Formation and Dispersal of a Renaissance Library (Amsterdam, 1975) and idem, Humanists and Bookbinders: The Origins and Diffusion of the Humanistic Bookbinding, 1459-1559 (Cambridge, 1989); Guido Vianini Tolomei, 'I ferri e Ie botteghe di legatori', Legatura romana barocca (Rome, 1991), pp. 31-33 and the illustrative tables; Franca Petrucci Nardelli, 'Legatori Vaticani', in Mercurius in Trivio: studi di bibliografia e di biblioteconomia per Alfredo Serrai net 60° compleanno, ed. by Maria Cochetti (Rome, 1993), pp. 153-61. The following abbreviations have been used in giving references: ASM = Archivio di Stato, Milan; ASDM = Archivio Storico Diocesano, Milan; not. = notarile; f. = filza. I wish to thank Dr Aldo Coletto, Dr Francesco Demasi, Dr Paul F. Gehl, Dr Federico Macchi, Fausto Ruggeri and Dr Laura Zumkeller for their helpful conversation and kind assistance in the course of preparing this paper.
7. The secondary literature on this subject is vast. For an excellent synthesis of recent studies on the binding trade of late Renaissance Italy see Piccarda Quilici, 'Breve storia della legatura d'arte dalle origini ai nostri giorni. Il Rinascimento: legature italiane', Il Bibliotecario, 13 (1987), 21-57; 14 (1987), 53-106. Also essential are: Tammaro de Marinis, La legatura artistica in Italia nei secoli XV e XVI: notizie ed elenchi, 3 vols (Florence, 1960); Anthony R. A. Hobson, Apollo and Pegasus: An Inquiry into the Formation and Dispersal of a Renaissance Library (Amsterdam, 1975) and idem, Humanists and Bookbinders: The Origins and Diffusion of the Humanistic Bookbinding, 1459-1559 (Cambridge, 1989); Guido Vianini Tolomei, 'I ferri e Ie botteghe di legatori', Legatura romana barocca (Rome, 1991), pp. 31-33 and the illustrative tables; Franca Petrucci Nardelli, 'Legatori Vaticani', in Mercurius in Trivio: studi di bibliografia e di biblioteconomia per Alfredo Serrai net 60° compleanno, ed. by Maria Cochetti (Rome, 1993), pp. 153-61. The following abbreviations have been used in giving references: ASM = Archivio di Stato, Milan; ASDM = Archivio Storico Diocesano, Milan; not. = notarile; f. = filza. I wish to thank Dr Aldo Coletto, Dr Francesco Demasi, Dr Paul F. Gehl, Dr Federico Macchi, Fausto Ruggeri and Dr Laura Zumkeller for their helpful conversation and kind assistance in the course of preparing this paper.
8. Mirjam M. Foot, 'Bookbinding and the History of Books', in her Studies in the History of Bookbinding (Aldershot, 1993), p. 3.
9. See the detailed study by Paul F. Gehl, 'Libri per donne. Le monache clienti del libraio fiorentino Piero Morosi (1588-1607)', in Donna, disciplina, creanza cristiana dal XV al XVII secolo, Studi e testi a stampa, ed. by Gabriella Zarri (Rome, 1996), pp. 67-81, which offers important new information on bindings sold to cloistered women in late Renaissance Florence, based on the account book (1588-1607) of the Florentine bookseller Piero di Giuliano Morosi. My thanks go to Dr Gehl for showing me a draft of this work.
10. ASM, not., Giovanni Antonio Curioni, 9 August 1605, f. 21533.
11. ASM, not., Giulio Cesare Ruginelli, 19 January 1613, f. 2.1476. The document was drawn up in 1613, presumably at the request of the Milanese publisher Giovanni Battista Bidelli, a business partner with Locarno's wife (Caterina Pirogallo) from 1609 to 1611. Bidelli was seeking to resolve debts incurred during the partnership. The document in question runs to ten folio pages and lists all the expenses, including labour and supplies, relating to the printing, bookselling and bookbinding operations.
12. This theme is developed by Pierangelo Bellettini, 'Publishing in the Provinces: Printing Houses in Romagna in the Seventeenth Century', The Italian Book 1465-1800. Studies Presented to Dennis E. Rhodes on his 70th Birthday, ed. by Denis V. Reidy (London, 1993), pp. 291-322 (pp. 311-12).
13. For a good description see Arnaldo Ganda, Niccolò Gorgonzola, editore e libraio in Milano (1496-1536) (Florence, 1988), p. 8.
14. See especially Stefano D'Amico, Le contrade e la città. Sistema produttivo e spazio urbano a Milano fra Cinque e Seicento (Milan, 1994), pp. 29, 174.
15. Locarno's production includes mostly unambitious, popular products ranging from works of literature (poetry and pastorals) and the occult, practical manuals and spiritual tracts to a few substantial political treatises; see Caterina Santoro, 'Tipografi milanesi del secolo XVII', La Bibliofilia, 68 (1965), 313, 324; Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense, Le edizioni del XVI secolo. II: Le edizioni milanesi, ed. by A. Coletto and L. Zumkeller (Milan, 1984).
16. Locarno's production includes mostly unambitious, popular products ranging from works of literature (poetry and pastorals) and the occult, practical manuals and spiritual tracts to a few substantial political treatises; see Caterina Santoro, 'Tipografi milanesi del secolo XVII', La Bibliofilia, 68 (1965), 313, 324; Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense, Le edizioni del XVI secolo. II: Le edizioni milanesi, ed. by A. Coletto and L. Zumkeller (Milan, 1984).
17. E. P. Goldschmidt, Gothic and Renaissance Bookbindings, 2 vols (London, 1918; repr. Amsterdam and Nieuwkoop, 1967), I, 40-41.
18. Francesco Barberi, 'Un inventario e un catalogo di libri romani del Cinquecento', Miscellanea in memoria di Giorgio Cencetti (Turin, 1973), pp. 339-61; Hobson, Apollo and Pegasus, pp. 102-05; and idem, 'Two Early Sixteenth-Century Binder's Shops in Rome', De Libris Compactis Miscellanea. Studia Bibliothecae Wittockianae, ed. by Georges Colin, 2 vols (Brussels, 1984), I, 79-98.
19. Francesco Barberi, 'Un inventario e un catalogo di libri romani del Cinquecento', Miscellanea in memoria di Giorgio Cencetti (Turin, 1973), pp. 339-61; Hobson, Apollo and Pegasus, pp. 102-05; and idem, 'Two Early Sixteenth-Century Binder's Shops in Rome', De Libris Compactis Miscellanea. Studia Bibliothecae Wittockianae, ed. by Georges Colin, 2 vols (Brussels, 1984), I, 79-98.
20. Francesco Barberi, 'Un inventario e un catalogo di libri romani del Cinquecento', Miscellanea in memoria di Giorgio Cencetti (Turin, 1973), pp. 339-61; Hobson, Apollo and Pegasus, pp. 102-05; and idem, 'Two Early Sixteenth-Century Binder's Shops in Rome', De Libris Compactis Miscellanea. Studia Bibliothecae Wittockianae, ed. by Georges Colin, 2 vols (Brussels, 1984), I, 79-98.
21. On the location and shop signs of Milanese stationers see Achille Bertarelli, 'I "segni di bottega" de' cartolai milanesi nei secoli XVI e XVII', Il libro e la stampa. Bullettino ufficiale della società bibliografica italiana, I (1897), 113-21.
22. Kevin M. Stevens and Paul F. Gehl, 'Giovanni Battista Bosso and the Paper Trade in Late Sixteenth-Century Milan', La Bibliofilia, 96 (1994), 43-90 (pp. 72-73; 88-89) offers a detailed analysis of two such inventories from 1595. Similar equipment also appears in the shop of Giovanni Antonio Opicini in 1589 (reproduced in Kevin M. Stevens, Printers, Publishers and Booksellers in Counter-Reformation Milan: A Documentary Study (Ph.D. diss., University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1991), pp. 469-72), and in the shop of Girolamo Giussano (ASM, not., Luigi Desio, 3 June 1569, f. 10912).
23. Kevin M. Stevens and Paul F. Gehl, 'Giovanni Battista Bosso and the Paper Trade in Late Sixteenth-Century Milan', La Bibliofilia, 96 (1994), 43-90 (pp. 72-73; 88-89) offers a detailed analysis of two such inventories from 1595. Similar equipment also appears in the shop of Giovanni Antonio Opicini in 1589 (reproduced in Kevin M. Stevens, Printers, Publishers and Booksellers in Counter-Reformation Milan: A Documentary Study (Ph.D. diss., University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1991), pp. 469-72), and in the shop of Girolamo Giussano (ASM, not., Luigi Desio, 3 June 1569, f. 10912).
24. Stevens and Gehl, 'Bosso', esp. pp. 71-73, 88-89.
25. ASM, not., Giovanni Battista Dossena, 3 December 1569, f. 15831. The terminology used to describe shop tools and furnishings from Cinquecento Milan varies widely: e.g., torciello, torchuletto, and torchietto can all mean a bookbinding press. The terms are not specific enough to show whether standing or lying presses are meant.
26. ASM, not., Giuseppe Peri, 13 May 1570, f. 14470. On Girardone's career see Kevin M. Stevens, 'Vincenzo Girardone and the Popular Press in Counter-Reformation Milan: A Case Study (1570)', The Sixteenth Century Journal, 26 (1995), 639-59.
27. Kevin M. Stevens, 'Printing and Patronage in Sixteenth-Century Milan: The Career of Francesco Moscheni (1547-1566)', Gutenberg-Jahrbuch 1995, 156.
28. ASM, not., Giulio Cesare Ruginelli, 19 January 1613, f. 21476. During the period 16 November 1609-30 January 1610 the total outlay of the shop was 3,013 lire, of which 435 lire involved binding expenses.
29. ASM, not., Giulio Cesare Ruginelli, 19 January 1613, f. 21476. Note payments totalling 122 lire for binding supplies and labour made on 22 December 1609, which nearly match the entire expenditure on binding (124 lire) in the following January. Both Christmas and Easter were gift-giving seasons that affected the book trade: see, for example, the figures cited by Gehl, 'Libri per donne', p. 72, n. 17.
30. A similar case obtained in Rome (1631) for a Vatican binder, who was obliged to pay for all binding materials; see Petrucci Nardelli, 'Legatori Vaticani', p. 155.
31. In 1610 Pellizone was residing in the parish of Santa Tecla; ASDM, Duplicati e Status Animarum, S. Tecle, vol. 83, 1610. Bertarelli, 'I segni', p. 120, reproduces Pellizone's shop sign (undated).
32. Bertarelli, 'I segni', pp. 115-16, 118. Paper wrappers indicate that family shops were located in the Mal Cantone (1587), the quarter of Santa Margarita (1593) and outside the Piazza dei Mercanti (1605).
33. Leonida Besozzi, 'Libri e librai al tempo di Carlo Borromeo', Libri e documenti (Milan, Archivio Storico Civico, 1992), 60.
34. ASDM, Status Animarum, S. Tecla, vol. 82 (1583); Visite Pastorali, San Fidele, vol. 35 (San Protaso ad Monacos), 1589.
35. ASDM, Status Animarum, S. Tecla, vol. 82 (1583); Visite Pastorali, San Fidele, vol. 35 (San Protaso ad Monacos), 1589.
36. ASDM, Visite Pastorali, Sez. 10, Metropolitana V, S. Michaelis subtus Domum (1610); D'Amico, Le contracte e la città, p. 30.
37. ASDM, Visite Pastorali, Sez. 10, Metropolitana V, S. Michaelis subtus Domum (1610); D'Amico, Le contracte e la città, p. 30.
38. ASDM, Visite Pastorali, ibid. Treocchi's household in 1610 included a wife, two daughters and four sons, the latter aged 14 to 24; presumably he would have been able to count on his eldest son (Carlo, aged 19 in 1605) and his wife (Caterina) to manage the shop on his behalf.
39. ASM, not., Giovanni Antonio Curioni, 9 August 1605, f. 21533.
40. Ibid.
41. For example, Robert Davis, 'Arsenal and arsenalotti: Workplace and Community in Seventeenth-Century Venice', in The Workplace before the Factory: Artisans and Proletarians, 1500-1800, ed. by T. M. Safley and L. N. Rosenband (Ithaca and London, 1993), pp. 189-194; Petrucci Nardini, 'Legatori Vaticani', p. 155.
42. For example, Robert Davis, 'Arsenal and arsenalotti: Workplace and Community in Seventeenth-Century Venice', in The Workplace before the Factory: Artisans and Proletarians, 1500-1800, ed. by T. M. Safley and L. N. Rosenband (Ithaca and London, 1993), pp. 189-194; Petrucci Nardini, 'Legatori Vaticani', p. 155.
43. ASM, not., Giulio Cesare Ruginelli, f. 21476, see the entry under 22 December 1610.
44. Ibid. See shop expenditures for 13-29 November 1609.
45. The meaning of at least two of the entries (nos 11 and 19) is unclear.
46. Presumably bronze tools set in wooden, chisel-like handles; fillets (wheels) and pallets (curved rockers) carried figured lines (evident in Fig. I) and were used for gold-tooling; see Philip Gaskell, A New Introduction to Bibliography (New York and Oxford, 1972), p. 149; Tolomei, 'I ferri', Appendix ('Nomenclatura relativa alla legatura').
47. Hobson, Humanists and Bookbinders, pp. 163-71.
48. Many of Locarno's tooled designs are similar to rubbings made from Baroque Roman bindings; for examples see Tolomei, 'I ferri', tables 1-10; Hobson, Humanists and Bookbinders, p. 169, provides a short description of finishing tools from a sixteenth-century Venetian shop.
49. The meaning of the term 'gamba' ('senza gamba') is unclear. Locarno may have been using it to signify those ovals ('ovadi) with or without decorative flames.
50. See EDIT 16 (Le edizioni italiane del XVI secolo. Censimento nazionale, 3 vols to date, Rome, 1985-93), vol. 3, under 'Chiesa', which highlights the predominance of Venice in publishing liturgical and prayer books.
51. ASM, not., Giulio Cesare Ruginelli, 19 January 1613, f. 21476. During the period 22 November 1609-8 March 1610 the managers purchased at least 40 bales of books, including 18 bales from Venice alone during the week of 22 December 1609. Unfortunately, the entries do not indicate specific titles purchased.
52. Ibid. See the monies received by Treocchi's heirs in 1610 and 1611 from the following: 'Don Gabriele' of the Church of Sant'Ambrogio (142 lire), 'fra. Salvatore' of the local Capuchin Order (77 lire), the vicar-general of the Arcivescovado (129 lire), priests from the Brera college (162 lire), Angelica Agata Sfondrati, prioress of the female Order of the Angelics (138 lire), and the prior of the Carthusian monastery in nearby Pavia (291 lire).
53. ASDM, Mensa Arcivescovile, mastro no. 18 (1604-1608), fol. 287 (12 June 1606) and fol. 341 (27 November 1607).
54. Records of the pastoral visitations made by Federico Borromeo in 1609 of the archdiocese of Milan were commonly bound in leather and tooled in gold, sometimes elegantly. A good example is provided by the records made for the visitation of the church of San Gotardo in 1609. The volume has a leather binding decorated with gold-tooled borders and a figure of the Assumption of Mary tooled in gold on both sides, identical to Locarno's in Fig. 2; see ASDM, Sez. X, Visite Pastorali (Corpi Santi, 1609, vol. 5).