1540 BARBARO ON BLUE PAPER 1540 BARBARO ON BLUE PAPER | Page 19

Daniele Barbaro and the world of Venetian publishing
Sixteenth-century readers welcomed Daniele Barbaro's works with appreciation, as
evidenced by the success all around Europe. Just one example among many:
Rhetoricorum Aristotelis libri tres, commented by Barbaro, was published in 1544 in
Venice by Paolo Gherardo, in Lyon by Sébastien Gryphe, and in Basel by
Bartholomaeus Westheimer in 1545. Looking how his contemporary scholars
described Barbaro, he appears a prominent man. Sperone Speroni, in the “Dialogo
della vita attiva e contemplativa” and Girolamo Ruscelli in the “Dialogo dell’eloquenza”
are full of praise to Barbaro, which confirms the positive feedback he received from
colleagues and contemporaries. Noble man, philosopher, scientist, mathematician,
and literary: from our point of view it is difficult to judge how much the tributes of
other writers were clues to his true greatness, or rather, bows in front of a well-
introduced man in the halls of power.
It could be inferred that Barbaro was a demanding man and that relations with
publishers led to interruptions, an interpretation that, without evidence, seems
legitimate: in his career as a writer he changed printers eight times, sometimes very
closely in the same year. The analysis can not therefore focus on how his works have
been published, the only evidence is of its link with local publishing. Unfortunately
we can not find continuity in Barbaro's choices. Only one thing can be certain:
Barbaro implemented the right tactics to make his publications successful by
combining the best qualities that a 16th c. writer/commentator/publisher could have.