1529, Venice: JACOPO DA BORGOFRANCO For LUCANTONIO GIUNTA
The exact nature of the relationship between publishers and printers during
the Renaissance was often very complex and no general rule is applicable
to every instance. Generally speaking, a publisher dealt with the editorial
and financial aspects of the business and was often a bookseller. Publishers
sometimes worked out of their homes or bookshops and may even have owned
their own type. Unless they published several books a year they could not
afford a press and the staff necessary to run it, so they simply contracted
with a local printer to run off the required number of copies. Sixteenth-century
editions often include details regarding the commercial relationships which
produced the book.
In this case, the colophon informs us that the book was "Stampato in
Venetia per Iacob del Burgofranco, Pavese. Ad/ instantia del nobile messere
Lucanto nio Giunta, Fiorentino" (printed in Venice by Jacob of Burgofranco
of Pavia. At the request of the noble Lucantonio Giunta, Florentine). Jacopo
Pocatela da Borgofranco printed primarily juridical and medical works in
the University city of Pavia between 1490 and 1525 before coming to Venice,
where he abandoned strictly academic publishing in favor of vernacular and
classical literary titles and religious texts. In Venice he mostly printed
for other publishers including, besides Lucantonio Giunta, the heirs of
Ottaviano Scoto. Borgofranco's motto, "Sustine et Abstine" (with
sustenance and abstinence), is prominently displayed between the muses,
beneath the folio-size illustration for Inferno I.
Lucantonio Giunta was one of the major figures in a distinguished family
of Florentine publishers, printers and booksellers. He was born in Florence
in 1457 and was a bookseller there until he moved to Venice in 1477, where
he continued his trade until 1489 when he established his own press. Active
in Venice between 1489 and 1538, he and his heirs distinguished themselves
particularly for their large number of liturgical books, missals and breviaries,
many with beautiful illustrations, as well as illustrated books in the vernacular
for the mass market.
