Simona Inserra (University of Catania)
Unquestionably, Sicily represents a peripheral area of Europe. However, studying the book production and circulation in the late 15th century has revealed intellectual vibrancy and exciting connections among the people throughout the ages. In the context of broader reconstruction of the incunabula history in Sicily, the paper introduces the first results of an investigation aimed at the reconstruction of the Sicilian trade established by the German printers from 1478 onward.
The paper presents an overview of copies of Sicilian editions that have survived to the present day and are preserved in European and American libraries (about 130 copies). By studying them separately, it is possible to track their movements in time and space: not only their physical appearance (binding, provenances, and ownership annotations), but also their documentary evidence, correspondence, and historical bibliography. Some of the most important results are presented for the first time.