had protected a century before by prohibiting the export of rags from their dominions.
The extent and growth of the Venetian booktrade will appear by the following notice of the number of works printed from 1469 to 1486, which would be considerably augmented if dates could be safely assigned to undated books:–
1469 4 books 1478 64 books. 1470 22 " 1479 16" 1471 48 " 1480 71" 1472 36 " 1481 79" 1473 28 " 1482 74" 1474 40 " 1483 104" 1475 37 " 1484 66" 1476 52 " 1485 84" 1477 55 " 1486 71"
By 1495 the number of publications has risen to 119, the general character of the books remaining much as before. The productions of the Venetian press from 1469 to 1500 occupy more space in Panzer's catalogue than those of Rome, Florence, Naples, Milan, Bologna, Brescia, Ferrara, Padua, Parma, and Treviso put together.
Space allows only a brief glance at the typographical productions of the five most important of the seven Italian cities which possessed printing-presses by 1471–Bologna, Ferrara, Florence, Milan and Naples. Bologna, as might be expected in a university city, especially produces erudite books, particularly in philosophy, mathematics, and medicine. Petrarch and Boccaccio, however, relieve the general aridity, and there is a fair
