In recent years, significant discoveries have altered the picture of the biography of Ottaviano Petrucci, filling in a number (though not all) of the gaps left in the work of Augusto Vernarecci over a century ago. Until recently, only a few archival documents had surfaced outside the city, mostly indirectly and as a result of research into some other subject. Recent discoveries by Franco Mariani, and by Teresa Maria Gialdroni and Agostino Ziino, however, have significantly helped to delineate what had been blank periods in Petrucci's life. As a result, much more is now known. This knowledge...

In recent years, significant discoveries have altered the picture of the biography of Ottaviano Petrucci, filling in a number (though not all) of the gaps left in the work of Augusto Vernarecci over a century ago. Until recently, only a few archival documents had surfaced outside the city, mostly indirectly and as a result of research into some other subject. Recent discoveries by Franco Mariani, and by Teresa Maria Gialdroni and Agostino Ziino, however, have significantly helped to delineate what had been blank periods in Petrucci's life. As a result, much more is now known. This knowledge gives the main outline of his life. However, more can be learnt by looking for the many commercial and social dilemmas that Petrucci must have faced, and the professional desires that must have motivated him, both of which clothe the skeleton of this biography.