Title
Scholarship, Commerce, Religion : The Learned Book in the Age of Confessions, 1560-1630 / Ian Maclean.
ISBN
9780674065321
Published
Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, [2012]
Copyright
©2012
Language
English
Language Note
In English.
Description
1 online resource : 37 line illustrations, 1 map
Item Number
10.4159/harvard.9780674065321 doi
Call Number
Z291.3 .M335 2012eb
Dewey Decimal Classification
070.5094/09031
Summary
A decade ago in the Times Literary Supplement, Roderick Conway Morris claimed that "almost everything that was going to happen in book publishing-from pocket books, instant books and pirated books, to the concept of author's copyright, company mergers, and remainders-occurred during the early days of printing." Ian Maclean's colorful survey of the flourishing learned book trade of the late Renaissance brings this assertion to life. The story he tells covers most of Europe, with Frankfurt and its Fair as the hub of intellectual exchanges among scholars and of commercial dealings among publishers. The three major religious confessions jostled for position there, and this rivalry affected nearly all aspects of learning. Few scholars were exempt from religious or financial pressures. Maclean's chosen example is the literary agent and representative of international Calvinism, Melchior Goldast von Haiminsfeld, whose activities included opportunistic involvement in the political disputes of the day. Maclean surveys the predicament of underfunded authors, the activities of greedy publishing entrepreneurs, the fitful interventions of regimes of censorship and licensing, and the struggles faced by sellers and buyers to achieve their ends in an increasingly overheated market. The story ends with an account of the dramatic decline of the scholarly book trade in the 1620s, and the connivance of humanist scholars in the values of the commercial world through which they aspired to international recognition. Their fate invites comparison with today's writers of learned books, as they too come to terms with new technologies and changing academic environments.
Access Note
Access limited to authorized users.
System Details Note
Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
Digital File Characteristics
text file PDF
Source of Description
Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 08. Jul 2019)
Frontmatter
Contents
Conventions of Transcription
Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Chapter one. Setting the Scene
Chapter two. In Medias Res: A Literary Agent in Frankfurt, 1606-1615
Chapter three. Authors, Fields, and Genres
Chapter four. Labor, Impensa, Emolumentum: The Publisher of Learned Books
Chapter five. Controlling the Market: Temporal and Ecclesiastical Authorities
Chapter six. Sellers and Purchasers: Markets, Distribution, and Collection- Building
Chapter seven. The Rise and Fall of the Learned Book Market, 1560-1630
Chapter eight. Postscript: Then and Now
Notes
Bibliography
Index
