This chapter offers a general overview of the book trade in 16th-century Venice. It emphasizes the community of printers and publishers, indicating the leading firms, the number of books published, and the locations of the presses around the city. The chapter observes how familial relationships or the fraterna provided the structural underpinnings for most commercial activities, how the bookmen governed themselves, and what their connections were to the intellectual and artistic world of Venice. Specialization in subjects printed became the basis for marketing strategies in the industry. The...

This chapter offers a general overview of the book trade in 16th-century Venice. It emphasizes the community of printers and publishers, indicating the leading firms, the number of books published, and the locations of the presses around the city. The chapter observes how familial relationships or the fraterna provided the structural underpinnings for most commercial activities, how the bookmen governed themselves, and what their connections were to the intellectual and artistic world of Venice. Specialization in subjects printed became the basis for marketing strategies in the industry. The chapter concludes with a survey of those specializations with particular attention given to the field of music.