We come so often to the study of the Renaissance in Florence through its art or its politics (or both); the focus here on humanism and manuscripts is such a major part of both and is often underlooked in comparison. This picks up and fits well with Stephen Greenblatt's 'The Swerve', though its interest is differently balanced. The long-term focus here on both the recovery and dissemination of 'lost' manuscripts from the East within the west is genuinely fascinating: seeing Vespasiano's early connections to both the Pazzi and the Medici had me wincing, knowing what was coming in future decades. The sheer process of creating vellum manuscripts and the translation to printing was excellently conveyed.

By the author of Brunelleschi’s Dome and Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling, King now focuses on the beginnings of libraries and printing in the pre-Renaissance Florence. This incredibly well researched book tells the story of Vespasiano who was a pre-eminent bookseller and collector. As with his previous books, the story is not just about Vespasiano, but about Italian history and politics and about a multitude of characters who influenced art, writing, culture, and politics in Italy and beyond. I was fascinated by references to word origins and the stories of the development of book making throughout history.

I'm very interested in both books and history, so I was looking forward to reading this book. I admit that I found parts of it utterly fascinating, but other parts were pretty tedious and boring and I found myself skimming occasionally. This is less a reflection on the author or the quality of the text, but rather a reflection of the fact that I am a lukewarm student of history and philosophy. This is a book that is thorough and detailed and a definite must read" for anyone who is interested in this period of history. I this it would be of special interest to anyone with an interest in the humanities -- I will definitely recommend this to my teacher friends. And I have every intention of reading more of Ross King's work. My "4 star" rating is only a reflection of my belief that this is not a book for the casual reader, but for the history buff.

A love of renaissance Florence, books, and a curiosity about Vespasiano, drew me to King's book. How did - for all intents and purposes - a barely educated young man, become one of the most prolific of collectors and sellers of illuminated manuscripts in Florence. King takes us on a personal journey of one man, who strove to educate himself, and through this discover the value and importance of both the gathering and the disseminating of knowledge. He was also a keen observer of the history of both his city and of the times, his notes, lost for some time, were rediscovered and printed, no doubt on that infernal machine that was the bane of his existence - the printing press.

But this is also a look at art, literature and learning, writing and its presentation; his customers, patrons, and the characters of the age.

King, a renowned expert in art and the Italian Renaissance, provides a fascinating glimpse of a man - born in the right place, at the right time, open to experience an "extraordinary efflorescence of culture". For me, a newly found kinship with a fellow collector.

This book is a true example of fine writing and dedicated scholarship. For being a lengthier book, I had fears that it might get tiring, but that did not prove to be so. This book is fascinating and educational from cover to cover.

The author not only gives details about the Florentine society and the book industry as it developed at the time, but so much more. I was particularly interested in the way he described each part that went into book making both before and after moveable type came into play. The different kinds of text that were used are shown in fine photographic examples and the descriptions of the different kinds of paper, parchment etc., are explained in a way that easy is easy to understand even for the lay person with no knowledge of such things.

This is a fantastic book that helped me learn a lot and kept me interested along the way. For any lover of books, you should definitely add this to your shelf.

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher, provided through Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

The Street of Booksellers in Florence was crucial to further learning in the Renaissance and not only selling books but also stocking parchment, binding manuscripts and illumination (decorated with stunning illustrations). The literacy rate in Florence was far higher than anywhere else. Few people could afford books then as they were all created by hand which took painstaking work and many months, if not years to complete. This meant only the wealthy and priests/churches/monasteries owned them at first. I just cannot comprehend owning such a treasure but thankfully have been able to see a few on my travels. I love that a group of intellectuals gathered to discuss philosophy and literature in Florence...what a sight that must have been!

This author has done meticulous and incredibly thorough research into the creating of and selling books in the 15th century. It was met with opposition frequently and there were book bans and burning and worse.. Others were lost to climatic conditions and bugs. Such a shame. But thanks to Vespasiano da Bisticci and colleagues and surviving manuscripts we have information into their world and know how things were done, what materials were used, who wanted books, esteemed customers and their creative wishes and who didn't want books around. We learn about Bruni, writings of Petrarch and Pliny, Grammar and Rhetoric and contemporary events. We also learn about the first printing including Gutenburg and others. Though Vespasiano and his scribes created glorious manuscripts he was opposed to mass printing. Mistakes were often made including confusing letters and some printers were more cautious than others. So many things to love about this book...some of my favourite aspects include learning about illustrating, materials used for writing, the origin of words, not to mention imagining the gorgeous binding as well as people's reaction to book making and printing and how they affected the entire world. I have been to some of the most magnificent libraries in the world and have stood in tears of awe, envisioning scribes at work. Well, this book brought it to life for me. What a time of enlightenment and preservation this must have been! How glad I am that people had the foresight to do this for their generations and emphasize the need of books and learning.

This is quite a niche book and would be particularly meaningful to historians, archivists, those who wish to learn more about the book creating process and about the need for books in general. But it's also a wonderful book to learn more about the Renaissance period and books. A fascinating read - I learned a great deal and am happy about that.

My sincere thank you to Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this highly informative and fascinating look into book creating, selling and buying in the 15th century. Much appreciated.

This is a well researched and written popular history of both the Renaissance and as we begin to see AI entering our lives a timely reminder of the winners and losers of any technological change. I left this book with a much better understanding of how manuscripts and books were made in the 15th century. The quick biographical sketches of the likes of Plato and contemporary figures like Ficino were much appreciated and make this book useful to any fledgeling historians of the period and it's literature.

Ask anyone who grew up immersed in Western history: Who invented the printing press? Chances are, they will pull out the German mouthful: “Gutenberg!” The exclamation point is there purposefully because this hypothetical former student is proud to demonstrate this information, to show that they do remember something from school. But ask any number of follow-up questions: What was the book industry like before the printing press? How did it shift afterwards and in what way? What was the importance of books in the Renaissance - to whom, about what, to what end? And to those, you are likely to get a questioning cocked head in response. Perhaps someone will mutter Luther? under their breath since the invention of the printing press has often been intimately tied to the later Protestant Reformation.

I am somewhat ashamed to say that as much as I have always loved reading, books, and all-things-word-related (the joy of etymology!), I have neither wondered about the answers to any of these questions nor identified them as questions needing answering. Until now. The description of Ross King’s book piqued my interest and opened up this world of the so-called unknown unknowns: the information I never knew I was missing.

The Bookseller of Florence: The Story of the Manuscripts That Illuminated the Renaissance* is a story about the preservation and attainment of knowledge, seeking modern meaning through ancient philosophy, and the craft of book-making, all told through the story of Florence's Vespasiano da Bisticci (1421-1498).

In addition to being incredibly prolific as a book-maker and book-seller, Vespasiano was well-known and well-respected in his time. Vespasiano’s career started as a youth when he began working in a bookshop. King describes the varied purposes of a Renaissance bookshop, much different than what we think of today. Bookmakers were an industry unto themselves, not only a retail establishment. They first located manuscripts based on client requests or their own interests, found a reliable and artful scribe to copy the manuscript by hand, pulled the final product together into a book format, and more. There were other decisions in the making of manuscripts: whether to write on paper or parchment (animal hides), each of which had their pros and cons. Even the locating of manuscripts to copy was a complex task. It required hunting books across Europe, and comparing various texts to determine which stayed the most true to the original (as texts degraded with multiple copies and errors in penmanship or translation). Not only were manuscripts written in beautiful text, but they were also illuminated with artwork. While much older and dating to the 9th century, the Book of Kells is a well-known example of an illuminated manuscript.

The Bookseller of Florence is both a work of history and contemporary (Renaissance) society. The book covers the evolution and history of manuscripts, the evolution of writing from the days of papyrus, and the etymology of words and expressions used today that harken to these earlier times. I found all of that history fascinating. As an example of some of the advances that Vespasiano himself was responsible for: he created the concept of a title page that is the norm in modern books, and he also developed updated script to make reading easier for his audience, who struggled with the densely packed Gothic script that was previously popular.

Because Vespasiano lived in a very educated and literate Florence at an important time in its history, he had a front row seat to the goings-on and had personal relationships with some of the most well-known and powerful individuals and families of the era. Vespasiano helped powerful men (e.g., several popes) and families (e.g., de Medici) create libraries, created original works for them on commission, and engaged in intellectual sparring in the salon-type atmosphere that surrounded his shop.

Vespasiano was only in his 20s when Gutenberg’s printing press first cropped up in Mainz, Germany. While the impact of the printing press began to be felt somewhat immediately, it was only in small doses and took time for other printers to open their own sites in cities across Europe. Florence actually was pretty late to the game in getting a printing press, which emerged through the efforts of Fra Domenico and the nuns of San Jacopo di Ripoli. King explores the intermingling of the two forms of book-making and how there was not immediate competition between the two in the way you might suppose.

There is much more packed into this well-researched and footnoted work of non-fiction including complex politics of Italian factions, the ever-evolving role of the Christian church in the perception of secular works, and the larger threats to Christian Europe by the encroaching Ottoman janissaries. While Vespasiano forms the backbone of this tale, the book itself diverts attention to these other matters, sometimes in a fair amount of detail, before circling back. While these diversions are interesting, at times they could be a bit jarring and made the flow of the book feel less cohesive to me. This is my only complaint and a minor one at that since Vespasiano’s placement in the wider world is also important.

I read this book on a Kindle that I just purchased after eschewing them for years in favor of tangible books. I am reading more advanced reading copy (pre-published) books these days, and most are available only on Kindle or other e-reader options. I say this to say: Will someone be writing about us in the centuries ahead, describing the transition from physical books to cloud-based and whatever unimaginable future technologies are to be developed? Will the details of that story even be given the time of day or will it be a mere footnote? It is hard to know what milestones of our times will be flagged for future consumption like the perhaps outsized attention placed on a one-time event of “Gutenberg invented the printing press”. Ross King deserves accolades for bringing this much more thoughtful and nuanced story to light. I will never think about books the same way again, which is to say that Bookseller of Florence is an incredibly impactful work.

i really enjoyed learning about this topic, the author was able to write something that will keep you reading and make it interesting.