Justus van Ghent, Solen, 1475.
Writer and art historian Ross King discusses his acclaimed new book, The Bookseller of Florence: Vespasiano da Bisticci and the Manuscripts that Illuminated the Renaissance.
From his shop in Florence’s ‘Street of Booksellers’, Vespasiano da Bisticci provided his many clients—popes, kings, princes and scholars—with beautiful manuscripts. His remarkable team of scribes and illuminators helped to spread across Europe the wisdom distilled in newly discovered works by authors such as Cicero and Plato. But as Florence’s great merchant of knowledge reached the peak of his powers, he was challenged by a new invention, the printing press, which appeared from across the Alps.
”The Bookseller of Florence: Vespasiano da Bisticci and the Manuscripts that Illuminated the Renaissance” by Ross King, is published by Chatto & Windus (2021).
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