Detail map of Venezia, Veneto, Italy Overview map of Venezia, Veneto, Italy

A: Venezia, Veneto, Italy

"Paper accounts for as much as fifty percent of the cost of a Renaissance-era book"

Circa 1500

"Paper accounts for as much as fifty percent of the cost of a Renaissance-era book, and it is consumed in vast quantities: three reams, or 1500 sheets, per day per press. Smooth paper costs five times as much as paper of inferior quality and over time the price fluctuates wildly; from the beginning of the sixteenth century demand grows so much that competition becomes more intense and manufacturers are forced to lower their prices. Printers need to go into debt in order to buy paper and so it is farly common for papermakers to become creditors, advancing a ream (500 sheets) at a time until the printing is finished, and taking control of the printing house when things go badly. Indeed, it is not infrequent for suppliers of 'white paper,' who control the raw material, to start trading in 'black paper' (printed paper), as in the case of Paganini, publishers of the first Koran" (Magno, Bound in Venice. The Serene Republic and the Dawn of the Book [2013] 26). 

Timeline Themes

Related Entries