The Bookseller of Florence: The Story of the Manuscripts That Illuminated the Renaissance

Ross King

Apr 2021 · Atlantic Monthly Press

About this ebook

The New York Times–bestselling author of Brunelleschi’s Dome captures the Renaissance spirit in this biography of “the king of the world’s booksellers.”

During the Renaissance, Florence’s manuscript hunters, scribes, scholars, and booksellers blew the dust off a thousand years of history and, through the discovery and diffusion of ancient knowledge, imagined a new and enlightened world.

At the heart of this activity, which bestselling author Ross King relates in his exhilarating new book, was a remarkable man: Vespasiano da Bisticci. Born in 1422, he became what a friend called “the king of the world’s booksellers.” At a time when all books were made by hand, Vespasiano produced and sold many hundreds of volumes from his bookshop, which also became a gathering spot for debate and discussion. His clients included a roll-call of popes, kings, and princes across Europe who wished to burnish their reputations by founding magnificent libraries.

Vespasiano reached the summit of his powers as Europe’s most prolific merchant of knowledge when a new invention appeared: the printed book. By 1480, he was swept away by this epic technological disruption, whereby cheaply produced books reached readers who never could have afforded one of Vespasiano’s elegant manuscripts.

A thrilling chronicle of intellectual ferment set against the dramatic political and religious turmoil of the era, Ross King’s brilliant The Bookseller of Florence is also an ode to books and bookmaking that charts the world-changing shift from script to print through the life of an extraordinary man long lost to history—one of the true titans of the Renaissance.

“A dazzling, instructive and highly entertaining book.” —The Wall Street Journal

Ratings and reviews

Bibliophilia, European-history, bookseller, historical-places-events, historical-research, history-and-culture, nonfiction, obsession***** I recognize that this is a personal interest Publish or Perish for Dr Ross King, but I really enjoyed it anyway. This is despite a few pages that I felt I was slogging through. This is because there was so much interesting stuff that was new to me or explained so much better than what I'd learned before. And I did learn a lot from his meticulous research and easy presentation. Just learning more about the development of the written and/or printed word made the whole zillion pages (of which 14% is acknowledgements and credits). I requested and received a free temporary ebook copy from Kensington Books via NetGalley. Thank you! Too bad that I missed the Zoom at the Cuyahoga Library yesterday!

It also means unlearned men and propagandists can print whatever they want and sell it to an unsuspecting audience.

About the author

Ross King is the award-winning and bestselling author of Brunelleschi’s Dome, Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling, The Judgment of Paris, Mad Enchantment, Leonardo and the Last Supper, and Machiavelli: Philosopher of Power, among other books. He and his wife live in Woodstock, Great Britain.