Political Publishing and Its Critics in Seventeenth-Century Italy
Author(s): Brendan Dooley
Source: Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome, Vol. 41 (1996), pp. 175-193
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POLITICALPUBLISHINGAND ITS CRITICS
IN SEVENTEENTH-CENThRY
ITALY
BrendanDooley
The
communicationsrevolutionof earlymodern Europe occurredin three dimensions.
Two of them were coveredby ElizabethEisensteinin her influentialThe PrintingPress
as an Agent of Change(Cambridge1979)-namely, the religiousand the scientific or scholarly.The third dimension,that of politics, has been the object of a body of work that has
grown particularlyover the past decade. Joining the hitherto distinct fields of histoire du
livre, intellectual history and the history of political behavior,this researchhas sought to
trace the influence of printedliteratureupon political culturesas far back as the beginning
of the seventeenthcentury,and even earlier.
This researchsuggests that printed publicationsof various sorts, including the newlyinvented newspapers,may have wielded a predominantinfluence in building political consciousness and affecting the outcomes of events in earlymodern Europe. If true, this suggests that the rich repertoireof behavioravailablefor expressingpositions regardingthe exercise of power in this period more frequentlyincluded written discourse and rationalpersuasion than was previouslyestimated,along with the exchange of visual symbols and gestures.Indeed, recentworkon Francehas uneartheda significantprintedchallengeto rulership
as early as 1614, when Henry II of Bourbon,prince of Conde, mounted a written assaultto
accompanyhis militaryassaultupon the regencygovernmentof Mariade' Medici duringthe
minorityof Louis XIII.1And while parryingthe militaryassault,the regencygovernmentshot
back with a series of pamphletsdefending its position. Both sides appearto have believed
they could mobilize enough minds to be able to recruittroops or preventothers from doing
so; and both sides apparentlybelieved they could establishpolitical consensusby argument
and persuasion.In the Dutch Republic, pamphletwars of a similarsort occurred at every
importantconjuncture.2The prospectivetruce suggestedby Jan van Oldenbarneveltduring
the revolt from Spainwas hotly debatedin printbefore it was finallydeclaredin 1609. Later,
the orthodox Calvinistonslaughtagainstthe splintergroupled byJacobus Arminiusin 1618
provoked a debate about religiousfreedom and tolerancein the new state. And the unfolding of events in Germanyroused Dutch supporterson each side of the ThirtyYears'Warto
express their views. Meanwhile,in England,the circulationof literatureopposing the forced
loan in the 1620s helped harden the opposition of membersof Parliamentto the crown's
I
JeffreyK. Sawyer,PrintedPoison.PamphletPropaganda, Beginningof IdeologicalConsciousnessandSocietyin the
Faction Politics and the Public Spherein Early Seven- FrenchReformation(Cambridge1981).
teenth-Century
France(Berkeley1990).DonaldR. Kelley
tracesthe use of printedmaterialto formpoliticalcon- 2 Craig Harline,Pamphlets,Printingand Political Culsciousness as far back as the sixteenth century,in The turein the EarlyDutchRepublic(Boston1987).
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176
BRENDANDOOLEY
innovativefinancialprocedures.3And the role of informationgrew until by the 1640s, securing public opinion was a key elementin politicalstrategieson either side of the Englishcivil
war,and this was done in a mannerfar moreexplicit and dynamicthan anywhereelse.4 It was
no accident that the period's most famous treatise on freedom of the press, Milton's
Areopagitica, was writtenhere. Otherareasof Europesharedin these developments,although
they are less studied. Among them Italy,which had an active printingindustryat the time
with no less than 160 centersall down the peninsulafromTurinto Palermo,is a case worth
analyzingin some detail.
To attemptto prove the efficacyof seventeenth-centuryprinted appealsby gaugingthe
meaningfulattitudes amongtheir broad readingpublics is to stretch the availableevidence
beyond credibility;and this is one reasonwhy the alternativeapproachof JiirgenHabermas,
more often found in studies on the eighteenth centuryand later, has recently been reproposed for the earlymodernperiod.'For Habermas,more importantthan actualpoliticalattitudes was the emergenceof structurespermittinga diversificationof the activitiesof private
persons,leadingto a changein the rapportbetweenthem and the public authorities.In other
words, political communicationnetworksbrought about political communication,not vice
versa;just as passengersdo not createrailways,railwayscreatepassengers.Before the emergence of such structures,Habermascontends,the public spherebelonged entirelyto the ruling classes. Vis-a-visthe subject,this spherewas where the status of those classeswas represented and reinforcedby ceremonial.With the consolidationof commercialcapitalismand
the formationof a recognizablebourgeoisie,the spherebelongingto privateindividualsand
their familiesbegan to take on public characteristicsof its own. New channelsof communicationopened up, includingnewspapers.In privategatheringplaces-coffee houses, salonsprivateindividualswere broughttogetherto form an alternativepublic sphere where interests could be discussed. Meanwhile,a public conscience in opposition to public authority
began to emerge, as men of letters began to appeal to the tastes of wider audiences and to
criticizethe courts.Literaryjournalswere formed,and so also eventuallywere journalsconcernedwith privatelife. While the privatespherebeganto take on public characteristics,the
formerpublic spherebegan to reachinto the privatesphere.The rulingclassesbeganto treat
their subjects as a "public"by publicizing decrees and actions in newspapersand propagandapamphlets.Finally,state powercameto be seen and contendedfor, in print and everywhere else, as a means for economic advancement,and the bourgeois public sphere came
into its own.
Useful though it is, the account of Habermas,at least in the light of recent work, does
not seem entirelysatisfactory.It places the changefrom a narrowto a wider public sphere at
3RichardJ. Cust, "News and Politics in EarlySeventeenth-Century England," Past and Present 112
(1986) 60-90. In addition, Cust, TheForcedLoanand
English Politics, 1626-28 (Oxford 1987). However,
MarkKishlanskyurges caution in giving too great importance to political issues in parliamentaryelections
in this period, in ParliamentarySelection. Social and
Political Choicein EarlyModernEngland(Cambridge
1986).
4Thomas N. Corns, UncloisteredVirtue:EnglishPolitical Literature,1640-60 (Oxford 1992).
I
Sawyer,(as n. 1) 10, citesJiirgenHabermas,TheStructuralTransformation
of thePublicSphere,tr.ThomasBurger
(Cambridge,Mass. 1989) [originallyStrukturwandel
der
Offentlichkeit
(NeuwiedandBerlin1962)].Habermaslater
provided a summaryof his argument,in "The Public
Sphere:An EncyclopediaArticle,"New GermanCritique
3 (1974)49-55. Amongstudieson the eighteenthcentury
which refer to Habermasis Keith Baker,Inventingthe
FrenchRevolution(Cambridge1990),chapter8. I explain
otheruses of the workin my "FromLiteraryCriticismto
SystemsTheory:TwentyYearsofJoumalismHistory,"
Journalof theHistoryof Ideas51 (1990)461-86.
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ITALY
IN SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY
ANDITSCRITICS
PUBLISHING
POLITICAL
177
too late a date. Furthermore,it does not take adequateaccountof developmentson the continent. What fuelled the transitionfrom the representativepublic sphere to the bourgeois
public sphere, he claimed, was a combinationof emergentcapitalism,a rising commercial
class, a commercialorientationin government,and a free press. And since these elements
seemed to him to have emergedfirst in England,he saw profound differencesbetween the
"Englishmodel" and the "Continentalmodel" of development.Holland escaped his gaze
entirely;and realchangeoccurredin Franceonly in the mid eighteenthcentury,he contended,
and in Germanyafter 1789. If recent studies are right,however,the privatesphere began to
take on public characteristicsin manyplaces long before commerceand mercantilismwere
at their height, and the press, in spite of censorshipconstraints,was instrumentalin bringing
about this result.
In the Italian states, the change to a wider public sphere occurredroughlyat the same
time as recentwork has found it to have done elsewhere,and the best proof is a sourcethat is
both ubiquitous and still relativelyunused-namely, the views of contemporaryobservers.
At the time, the new part playedby printedtexts was regardedas a political event of epochmaking importance.Varioustheories were advancedconcerningthe dangers and benefits.
Such theories often profoundlyaffectedthe way governmentsorientedbehaviortowardsubject populations.For this reason,the earlyeighteenth-centuryNeapolitanjuristand historian
GiambattistaVico made them part of the complex of characteristicsthat distinguishedeach
period in the developmentof civilization.The present essay intends to trace their development in Italy from 1620 to the time of Vico.
Contemporarytheoriesaboutthe communicationof politicalinformationin seventeenthcenturyItaly went throughtwo stages, which can be very brieflyoutlined here and at much
greaterlength later accompaniedby examples.In virtuallyall the majorstates, from the republic of Veniceto the kingdomof Naples,the predominantearlyseventeenth-centurytheory
insisted upon secrecy.To understandthe controlmechanismsupposedin this theory,the notion of monopolyis helpful. In this stage, informationof anykind-on militaryevents, internal political change, and the like-was regardedas subjectto carefulcontrol by the governments concerned,to be administeredbit by bit as the occasiondemanded,and carefullycontrolled at the variouspoints where it might enter a state. The audiencefor printedliterature
was regardedas passive until enflamed and altered by novelty,which had therefore to be
avoided wheneverinformationwas administered.The new theory that emerged aroundthe
second half of the centurymight be called, for contrast,the free marketof information.According to this theory,the audiencewas conceivedto be anythingbut passive.It exercised a
powerful and inexorabledemandon information,which poured out towardsit from whatever producerwas most readilyavailable.It preferredbad informationto good by a sort of
Gresham'slaw, on the basis of what could most easily be obtained. Controlswere seen as
counter-productive,because they discouragedthe good and failed to stop the bad. A free
marketand a few dependablescribblerswere regardedas the only alternative.The transition
from the monopoly theory to the free markettheorywas not abrupt;indeed, proponentsof
the earliertheorycan be found throughoutthe century,just as hints of the latertheorycan be
found earlier.Moreover,some of the best expressionsof the later theoryoccurredlong after
a basic sea-changehad alreadytaken place; and indeed this happenedin differentplaces at
differenttimes. These caveatsshould be kept in mind duringthe following account.
What broughtabout the best expressionof the monopolisttheoryof communicationwas
a crisis:the outbreakof the ThirtyYears'Warand the first avalancheof political pamphlets
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BRENDANDOOLEY
178
describingand analyzingthe events in Germany,Holland and eventuallyin Italy and defending or impugningthe actionsof the statesconcerned.The Renaissancebarrierto the publication of informationburst before this onslaughtand the secrets of the cabinets of Italy and
elsewherewere exposed to view. The gestureof providinginformationto the readerwas regarded by some officials in the variousstates as damagingenough in itself because it suggested that the higher affairsof governmentwere somehow of general interest. When the
informationso provided was manifestlycontraryto the interests of the local government,
extraordinarymeasuresseemed to be in order.
Among the first of the officialsof the variousItaliangovernmentsto talk about the measures necessaryto preventthe effect of perniciousliteraturewas Paolo Sarpi, counsellorto
the Venetianstate on mattersconcerningthe press. Most famousnow for his Historyof the
Councilof Trent(1619), Sarpihad been firsthiredby the VenetianSenateto extricateit from
the so-calledInterdictcontroversywith Romein 1606, when Pope Paul V placed heavysanctions on the Republic for its policy of having ecclesiasticstried in secular law courts.6In
1621, he was called upon to discuss the circulationof a pamphlet attributedto Hermann
Conrad, Baron von Friedenberg,a Habsburg sympathizerin the Thirty Years' War,who
claimedthe Venetiangovernmenthad made a deal with the Protestantstates to help save the
Palatinatein exchange for certainfavors in the Germanspice marketin the early stages of
the war.7This was a seriousindictment,suggestingthat Venicecould not be trustedas an ally
to the Catholic princes and raisingsuspicions about the piety of its intentions in defending
its controlover the local Churchin the Interdictcontroversy.The Venetiangovernmentnaturallybannedthe book, and Sarpitried to providesome guidancefor furtheroccasionsof this
kind.
as
its government
Somewritings,by defamingthe authorityof the stateandportraying
bothamongits neighborsandamongits subjects
the state'sreputation
weak,undermine
of noveltieswhicharenevertried
theintroduction
to sucha levelthatdisdainencourages
thatarereputedpowerful
by enemiesin warorbysubjectsin revoltagainstgovernments
asperfidiousto its neighbors
andeffective.Otherwritings,by depictingthegovernment
andunjustandunlovingto its subjectsrenderit odiousto both.
But the most pernicious of all, in Sarpi's view, and indeed the group to which the recently banned book belonged, "is a third type of writings, those that impugn the piety of
the Republic in religious matters and so destroy the subjects' faith in it and remove their
affection for the Prince."8The reader,according to Sarpi, was ordinarilya passive receptacle of information, believing whatever was written and adjusting his loyalties accordingly.
Sarpi was well acquaintedwith the many avenuesfor the diffusion'of printed information in the seventeenth-centuryItalianworld. Wordof mouth was still the most importantin
6 These events are analyzedby WilliamJ.
Bouwsma,in Museo Correr,Misc.Correr1099, cc. 21 ff.
Veniceand the Defenseof RepublicanLiberty(Berkeley
8 Scrittigiurisdizionalistici,
ed. GiovanniGambarin(Bari
1968).
1958)221.Thisperiodin Sarpi'slifeis analyzedby Gaetano
' The pamphletin questionwas Istruzionesecretissima Cozzi,"Notaintroduttiva,"
in PaoloSarpi,Opere,ed. G.
dataa FedericoV contepalatino,printedin severallan- andLuisaCozzi(Milan-Naples1969)3-37. Forhis efforts
guagesin 1620. A manuscriptof the work is in Venice, duringthe Interdict,thereis Bouwsma(asn. 6).
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POLITICAL
PUBLISHING
ANDITSCRITICS
IN SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY
ITALY
179
a society with less than fifty percent literacy (still a high figure for the time); and writings
quickly became the subjects of discussions availableto all. "Theyencourage conversation
and providematerialfor the discoursesof the disaffectedandthe self-interested,who insinuate themselvesinto the open ears of the simple-minded,seducingthem and impressingupon
them concepts with perniciouseffects."Printedworks could enter the world of oral culture
especiallyvia the pulpit and the confessional."Theyencouragepreachersand confessorsto
administertheir sinister offices in confessions and in other religious conversationswith an
effectivenessthat we do not need to learnfromhistory."9This, he suggested,was the reason
for the assassinationof Henry IV of France by FranqoisRavaillac,a court clerk with antiProtestantsympathiesand a fondnessfor Catholicoratory.
In the event that such works could not effectivelybe prohibited,well-meaningstate officials might be tempted to engage in activeliterarycombat. "Allthat remains,"such officials
might be led to think, "is to blunt the blade" of the dangerouswritings "andweaken their
effect by opposing them with other writingsthat show them to be malicious and false and
clarifythings enough to confound the spiteful, confirmthe sentimentsof the well-affected
and impress the truth upon the undecided. ..."10 Renaissancerhetoricalskill, then, might
come to the rescue.But no one knew better than Sarpithat this too had its perils.First of all,
what if the opponentwas more humorousthanyou were? "Neverattemptto respondto writings that speak evil with brevity and wit, even if falsely,when the defense requiresa long
narrativeor discourse,since brief and witty expressionsimpressthemselveson and take over
the mind, whereasa long discoursetires it to such an extent that it will never open up to the
truth."Next, what if the defense could be more damagingthanthe criticismitself?The truth
can sometimeshurt, Sarpinoted, for the public dealingsof a government,based on a calculus of the lesser evil, are bound to appearsuspect to an ignorantprivate person bound to
conventionalmorality.
No state has been nor can be without very greatimperfections.... The [Venetian]Re-
publicis by no meansimmuneto thehumancondition.Itsdefectscouldbe exposedand
censured and used to condemn the whole governmentby anyonewho wants to offend
and create a bad impression;they cannot be defended, can scarcelybe hidden, and to
makeexcuse for them is to admitthem, and humanmalicedoes not listen to excuses.
Faced with the futilityof all the other alternativesto the governmentalcontrol of information,Sarpimade a startlingsuggestion.The best strategy,he suggested,is to pay attention
to events as they occur and publish a narrationof them with argumentssupportingthe side
that fits one's interests and increasesone's advantage.He took the example of the recent
pamphletwarbetween the Princeof Conde and the regencygovernmentof Mariade' Medici.
"Whenanythinghappens that affects them, they immediatelycome out in print turningthe
fact to their own advantage;and even when they do not have a present need, they do it in
order to prepare opinions usefully for the future."When adopting this strategy,however,
speed was of the utmost importancefor two reasons.First of all, audienceshave limited patience. "Whenthe events are new. . . recent curiosityexcites everyoneto read,whereasafter
a few daysno one wants to hear about them anymore."Secondly,audiencesmakesnap judgments. "Thefirst impressionis usuallythe most effectivefor holding the mind and arousing
9Scritti giurisdizionalistici,
221-22.
10
Ibid., 222.
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BRENDANDOOLEY
180
the emotions.""1 What Sarpi wanted could be called a government information office. By
offering readers their first taste of what was going on in the world and tinting information in
the proper way, the republic could ensure that information from other sources would be discounted or ignored. Sarpi thus pointed, however tentatively, toward the second stage in seventeenth-century communications theory-the theory of the free market. Information must
be administered in carefully controlled doses, yes; but the job of control is complicated by
the existence of competing information suppliers with contrary interests, who cannot be eradicated. Where there is competition there is a market, and where there is a market there are
market forces. The audience therefore is not wholly passive; it allows itself to be enflamed
and aroused by whoever captures its attention. And where the economy of communication cannot be completely controlled, government must compete better for a share of the
market.
After having come so far, however, Sarpi drew back. He rejected his own suggestion for a
government information office as soon as he made it; and his reasons reveal still more about
communication theories in the world of the early seventeenth century. For one thing, he protested, no printer in Venice would ever want to be involved in such a project, considering the
number of powerful senators who might object to this or that feature of a story, leading to
interminable quarrels and negotiations, and nothing getting printed. But his most important
objection was that the gesture of verbal defense and explanation of policies placed the government in an attitude of subservience to the audience and opened up the public sphere to
unnecessary interference from private persons. This was to be avoided at all costs. Said Sarpi:
Everyoneconfessesthat the trueway of rulingthe subjectis to keep him ignorantof and
reverenttowardpublic affairs,sincewhen he finds out aboutthem he graduallybegins to
judge the prince'sactions;he becomes so accustomedto this communicationthat he believes it is due him and when it is not, he sees a false significanceor else perceives an
affront and conceives hatred-and what is said of subjectscan be applied proportionately to neighbors.This reasonis so strong that it has no responsein cases where [the
argumentsof the government]have not [yet] been published and where its opponents
are not expected to publishcontraryones;in such cases the subjectwould not be kept in
ignoranceand reverence,but the door would be opened to the contraryopinion formed
by the readingof opposingmanifestoes,which the public serviceinsists must be prohibited and once diffusedmust be eradicated.12
Making the subject think about politics could open a Pandora's box. Having rejected his
own best suggestion, Sarpi excused himself from making any further pronouncements, and,
for the moment, nothing further was done.
The Venetian government fully acknowledged the dangers of opening the cabinets of
princes up to the scrutiny of the whole population. One of the next victims of this policy was
not even the product of an enemy foreigner but of Venetian official historian Nicolo Contarini,
later doge. He wrote the state-sponsored history of the Republic from 1597 through 1605
and left it unfinished at his death in 1631. In it, he analyzed the policy of Venice toward
Rome, France, and the Habsburg Empire in a delicate period, showing the disagreements
among the senators where they occurred as the European power balance of the late Renaissance began to fall apart and a clash between Venice and the papacy loomed, due to the
11 Ibid.,
228.
12Ibid., 230.
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ITALY
POLITICALPUBLISHINGAND ITS CRITICSIN SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY
181
Republic'sinsistence on keeping control over the local Church.13And like his predecessor
Paolo Paruta,he wrote in Italian for the intelligenceof his fellow countrymen.'4However,
the government-appointedcensors decided his accountwas too candid for comfort. "In his
introductoryremarksabout the varioussenatorsinvolved,"they noted, "[he] explainsmuch
that can allow men to find out how to act politically"(in Italian,politicamente-i.e., to act
with skill in a political setting)." No one in the VenetianRepublicwas allowed to act with
political skill at bringingpressureto bear for the enactmentof legislationor the changingof
policies, except the Venetiannobility,designatedby statuteas the exclusivepossessorsof the
franchiseand as the exclusive holders of the most importantoffices. Accordingly,the governmentsuspendedthe printingof the work and enjoinedthe next official historian,Andrea
Morosini,to observescrupulouslythe new obligationto write in Latin.He, in turn, directed
his work not to a largepublic of Venetiansand Italiansbut to the patricianelite and scholars
"whereverLatin is understood."16
The attitudesof Sarpiand the Venetianelite were typicalexamplesof more widespread
views. In the grand duchy of Tuscany,the proponentof ideas similarto Sarpi'swas Virgilio
Malvezzi,a Bologneselawyerin the entourageof his father,governorof Siena,a city subject
to the grand duke. In his Discourses upon Cornelius Tacitus, dedicated to Grand Duke
FerdinandoII, he declaredthat "all states have certainfoundationsor as we call them, seHe councrets,by which they governthemselves,both for conservationand augmentation."'7
selled princes to "speakobscurely,"addingthus to their majesty,and to avoid "layingthemselves open to all men'sview."'18Political informationwas, for Malvezzi,an attributeof majesty.Just a short time before, Neapolitan-bornFlorentineresidentScipioneAmmiratowrote
an entire treatise,On Secrecy, advisingagainstrevealing"inappropriatethings"[non honeste
cose] such as the secrets of princes or the affairsof ministersand nobles that were better to
"keep quiet."19All agreedthat the audiencefor political informationwas passive as long as
13 The work is excerptedby Gino Benzoni and Tiziano
The authorityon Contariniis still GaetanoCozzi,II doge
Zanato, in Storici, politici e moralisti del Seicento NicoloContarini(Venice1958).
(Milan-Naples1982) 135-444.
16 AndreaMorosini,Historiaveneta,which I consulted
14PaoloParutato "ilnobileNN," in ApostoloZeno,"Vita in Istoricidelle coseveneziane,vol. 5 (1718), pt. 1, p. 2:
di PaoloParuta,"prefixedto Paruta'sHistoriaveneziana, "Cummihi a supremoDecemvirumConcilioinjunctum
in Istoricidelle coseveneziane,10 vols., ed. Apostoloand esset, ut scriptisrerum,quae nostra aetategestae sunt,
PiercaterinoZeno (Venice1718-22),vol. 3 (1718)xx: . . . memoriamcomplecterer,cuperetqueanimusnon intra
Mi parevanonpoterfuggirognibiasimo,s'iotantostimato unius provinciaefines, sed quacumquepriscaeRomanavessiil piaceraglistraniericol porreognimiostudionello orum linguae notitia pervasit, nobilissimae atque
scriverenellalinguaLatinaa piu di loropartecipe,la storia antiquissimaeReipublicaegesta perlegi . . ."
delle cose nostre,che nessunaoperao curaavessivoluto
porreperpiacerea nostrimedesimiItaliani:moltideiquali, '7Discourses
uponCornelius
Tacitus,
tr.RichardBaker(Lonpersoneper altrodi alto ingegno,per averealtrovevolta don 1642) [orig. DiscorsisopraCornelioTacito(Venice
l'indoleloro, non hannocognizionedellalinguaLatina." 1622)] 198.A discussionthatlooks at Malvezzi'splacein
The currentauthorityon Venetianhistoriography
in the seventeenth-century
thoughtfroma slightlydifferentviewRenaissanceis EricCochrane,HistoriansandHistoriogra- pointis RichardTuck,PhilosophyandGovernment
(Camphyin the ItalianRenaissance(Chicago1984).
bridge1993),chap.3. Theonlyfull-lengthstudyis Rodolfo
Brandli,VirgilioMalvezzi,politicoe moralista(Basel1964),
13
The report of CounsellorsScipione Ferramoscaand fromwhichonlythe biographicaldetailsherearetaken.
LodovicoBaitelliis recordedin Emmanuele
Cicogna,Delle
vol.3 (1830)289.Thenumerousmanu- '8DiscoursesuponCorneliusTacitus,378.
iscrizioniveneziane,
scripts that nonetheless circulatedare discussed in T.
Zanato,"Perl'edizionecriticadelle Historievenezianedi ' Scipione Ammirato, "Della segretezza" [1593] in
Nicolo Contarini,"Studiveneziani,n.s. 4 (1980) 129-98. Opuscoli,vol. 1 (Florence1640) 315-48.
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182
BRENDAN DOOLEY
novelty did not bring out the vice of curiosity;otherwise,even the circulationof facts about
currentpolicies amongthe populationcould sparkcontestationand oppositionto public pronouncementsof the politicalelite. Dealswiththis or thatpotentate,opinionsaboutthe Church,
and so forth might detractfrom the image of perfect probity and justice they wanted their
states to project.All agreedthat the public sphere,whetherin nominalrepublicslike aristocraticVenice or in ducal monarchieslike Florence,i.e., the spherewhere there could be real
politics-decision-making, deliberating,counselling,and acting upon the concerns that affect the communityin its entirety-must be reservedexclusivelyto the politicalelite in order
to maintainpower and security.
Even those who disagreedwith this tradition'simplied goals acknowledgedthat a restrictedpublic spherewas the best way to attainthem. TraianoBoccalini,a provincialgovernor in the papal states and one of the great satiristsof the century,playfullysuggested that
governmentsdid not uniformlyban the ideas of Niccolo Machiavellifrom the bookstoresin
their states for pious reasons.They did so, instead, for fear that subjects might learn from
him the principlesfollowed by rulingelites in the world of politics. Then those governments
would no longer have meek and stupid flocks to watch, but clever and astute politicians,
readyto contest their power at each opportunity.If the most worthwhilegoal of politics was
power and security(andBoccaliniwas not altogethersurethat this was the case), a restricted
public spherewas the only means. "Tryingto make simplemen cunningand to makemoles,
which MotherNaturehad wisely madeblind, see the light, would be," accordingto the view
satirizedby Boccalini,"to turn the world upside down."20
The changeto the next stagein seventeenth-century
theoriesof communication,the stage
that might be called the free markettheory,came aboutfor some of the reasonssuggestedby
Habermas,but not necessarilyin the degree or order he suggested. One reason may well
have been the growingnumberof privateassociationsin the Italian cities. Far more important than the coffee houses or salons mentionedby Habermasfor providingnew places for
the discussionof commonconcernsby privateindividualswerethe academies.2"
Actuallydating
fromthe earlierRenaissance,these institutionscontinuedto developthe role assignedto them
at their origins-namely, that of providinginformalplaces of encounterfor literaryrecreation and perfecting the art of conversation.Each was governedlike a miniaturerepublic,
with a special, often whimsicalname, a distinctiveemblem, and an elected leader. Nobles
and commoners,laymenand ecclesiastics,universityprofessorsand membersof the liberal
professionstook equal part, often adoptingaliasesto conceal their unequalsocial positions.
Activitiesincluded public lectures,poetryrecitations,games,competitions,and the publication of writingsboth serious and frivolous.Their statutes regularlyprohibited orations regarding "dangerous"topics directlyrelatedto religion or politics. "No one must read anything regardingtheology or sacred Scripture,from which we must abstain for the sake of
reverence,"the foundersof the Academyof the Oziosi [the "LazyOnes"] of Naples enjoined,
"andlikewise, nothing concerningpublic government,which must be left to the care of the
FromRagguagli di Parnaso, vol. 1, ed. GiuseppeRua MicheleMaylender,
Storia delle accademied'Italia, 5 vols.
(Bari1910)328. A recentcriticalappraisalis in Maurizio (Bologna 1929-30). All work on academies,however,
Viroli,From Politics to Reason of State. The Acquisition shouldbe readin the lightof EricCochrane,"TheRenaisand Transformation of the Language of Politics, 1250sanceAcademiesin the ItalianandEuropeanSetting,"in
1600 (Cambridge1992) 257-67.
The FairestFlower: The Emergenceof Linguistic Consciousness in RenaissanceEurope,Proceedingsof the Conference
21
The indispensablereferencework on the academiesis at UCLA,December1983 (Florence1985)21-39.
20
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ITALY
POLITICALPUBLISHINGAND ITS CRITICSIN SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY
183
rulingprinces.""This did not preventthe more adventurousamongthem, such as the Lincei
of Rome or the Investigantiof Naples, from takingpotshots at currentstate policies on education, or frombaitingthe local press censors,as did the Incognitiof Venice.The academies'
ideal of "civilconversation,"which they defined as the meansfor "livingcivilly"together,no
doubt helped define a sphere of sociability outside the sphere defined by government.23
And they responded so well to the growing needs of seventeenth-centurycultural and social life that the number of new foundations grew from 377 in 113 cities in the previous
centuryto no fewer than 870 in 226 cities in the seventeenthcentury,reachinga peak around
1650.24
Another main reason for the change to the free markettheory of communicationmost
certainlywas the recoveryof commerceafterthe depressionof 1620 and the plague of 1630,
which depleted the populationof Veniceby a third, of Milanand Bresciaby nearlyhalf, and
of Florence by an eighth.25For one thing, informationabout the situationin some of Italy's
best marketsin Germanyand France came into great demand,and beginningin 1640 with
Genoese writerPietro Castelli,entrepreneursand printersall over Italy began to set in type
the manuscriptnewslettersthat had hitherto been circulatingamong a restrictedgroup of
Furthermore,the economic crisistemporarilydislodgedthe Vediplomatsand big traders.26
netian printing industryfrom its position of dominanceover its counterpartsin the rest of
the peninsula.27Printersin other Italiancities tried to take up the slack, and whereno printers existed, one or two were establishedfor the first time. But when the Venetianindustry
began to recover in the 1640s, it regainedmost of the authors it lost, leaving the smaller
printerselsewhereto make do with whateversorts of publicationsthe Venetiansdid not export, such as broadsidesand smallpamphletsthatwerenot worththe postageand transportation costs of interstatedelivery.And one item that the Venetianswould by no meansexport,
Cited in Amedeo Quondam,"Laccademia,"Letteraturaitaliana,vol. 1, II letteratoe le istituzioni,ed. Alberto
AsorRosa (Turin1982) 855. Quondamplacesmoreemphasis on the academiesas structuresfor social control
than the evidence seemsto allow.
22
1965) 69-71, corrected according to articles in La
demografiastoricadelle cittditaliane,Convegno,Assisi,
27-29 ottobre, 1980 (Bologna1982). The plagues'economic consequences are the subject of Lorenzo Dal
italiana,secoli
Panta,Le epidemienellastoriademografica
16-18 (Turin1980), chapter4.
23StefanoGuazzo,Lacivilconversatione
(Venice1575)20.
Quondam provides a handy table in "L'accademia,"
890-98. In addition, Giuseppe Olmi, "'In essercitio
universaledi contemplationee pratica':FedericoCesi e
i Lincei,"in Universitd,accademiee societdscientifiche
in Italia e in Germaniadal Cinqueal Seicento,ed. Ezio
Raimondiand LaetitiaBoehm (Bologna1981) 169-99;
andJean-MichelGardair,"I Lincei:i soggetti,i luoghi,
le attivita," Quadernistorici 16 (1981) 763-87. The
Investigantihavegenerateda considerablebibliography,
outlined by Maurizio Torrini, in "L'Accademiadegli
Investiganti, Napoli, 1633-70," Quadernistorici 16
(1981)845-83. Finally,concerningthe Incogniti,Ginetta
Auzzas, "Le nuove esperienze della narrativa: il
romanzo,"Storiadellaculturaveneta,vol. 6, II Seicento,
ed. Girolamo Arnaldi and Armando Pastore Stocchi
(Vicenza1983) 249-95.
24
26Theonlybiographyof the Castelliis by G. Gangemiin
the DizionariobiograficodegliItaliani21 (1978)741-42.
In addition, see ValerioCastronovo,"I primi sviluppi
della stampaperiodica fra Cinque e Seicento," in La
stampaitaliana dal Cinquecentoall'Ottocento, ed. V.
Castronovoand Nicola Tranfaglia(Bari 1976) 26. For
whatfollows,thereis valuablebibliographicalinformation in vol. 2 of Ugo Bellocchi, Storiadel giornalismo
italiano,6 vols. (Bologna1974-77).
Paolo Ulvioni, "Stampatorie librai a Venezia nel
Seicento,"Archivioveneto, ser. 5, vol. 144 (1977) 93134. Whatfollows is based on an analysisof SuzanneP.
Michel and Paul-HenriMichel,Repertoiredes ouvrages
imprimisen langueitalienneau dix-septiemesiecle,vol.
1 (A-Ba),and vol. 2 (Be-Bz),(Florence1970-1980); id.,
en langueitalienneau
Repertoiredes ouvragesimprime's
dix-septiemesiecle conserve'sdans les bibliothequesde
2S Plague mortality rates are from Julius Beloch,
France,7 vols. (Paris 1972-85); S. Piantanidaet al.,
italiens,vol. 1., seconded. (Berlin Autoriitalianidel Seicento,4 vols. (Milan1948-51).
Bevolkerungsgeschichte
27
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184
BRENDANDOOLEY
butwhichnonethelessseemedto promisesmallerprintersa relatively
regularincome,atleast
in comparison
withthe usualspotprinting,wastheprintednewspaper.
weremilitaryandpoliticalinforBy farthe mostsignificantcontentsof the newspapers
mation.Asjournalists
soughtto filltheirpagesbyextendingto thelimittheirstoriesof battles,
of Europe,the subjectmatterof jourtreaties,andchangesof personnelin the governments
nalismquicklyevolvedfrominformation
to opinionson mattersto be decidedin government.The journalistsused new laws and policiesas occasionsfor politicalanalysis.True,
noneof themwillinglyofferedhimselfas a scapegoatto the authorities
by printingmuckraking storieson localpoliticsin a publication
knownby everyonein townto be his ownproduct. Theycoveredlocal politicsin a generallypositivefashion.The Successidel Mondoin
Turin,for example,reservednothingbut praiseforDukeCharlesEmmanuel's
policyon law
andorderin the principality
of Piedmontandthe duchyof Savoy."Rigorous
enforcement
of
theguncontrollaws,"it commented,
"willmakethestreetssaferatnight."28
Nothingstopped
the journalists,
however,fromsayingwhattheywantedaboutexternalaffairs;andthemultitudeof Italianstatesprovidedan almostinexhaustible
sourceof material.TheGenoa-based
Gazzettadi Genovacoveredthe Italianepisodesof the warsbetweenFranceand Spainin
1656,on the eve of the Peaceof the Pyrenees;andwhatbeganas a reporton the effortsof
theFrench,aidedby DukeCharlesEmmanuel
II of Savoy,to dislodgethe Spanishfromtheir
possessionsin Lombardy,
turnedintoa lamenton thesenselessness
of waranda possiblecall
to the localgovernment
to avoidinvolvement
andto trustthe securityprovidedby Genoa's
controversial
alliancewithSpain."Thepeoplein theseareasfleeto theothersideof theriver
[Po] to seekrefugewiththeirpossessionsin [thefortressof] Casale,"a citadelbelongingto
the dukeof Mantua,"andsincethe Po is overflowing,
andtheyhavetroublecrossing,the
sightof thosepoorpeoplewaitingon the shoreallterrifiedby the sufferingandby the dangerof beingsurprisedby the Frenchexcitesunimaginable
compassion."29
TheRimini-based
Riminionewspapercriticizedthe Spanishgovernment
in MilanandLombardy
for allowing
grainpricesto risedisastrously
in the 1660s,whileat the sametimedrawingmenawayfrom
the fieldsto be shippedoverto the recentlyresumedwarto regainPortugal.It then cited
maladministration
by the Spanishgovernment
in the portof Finale,recentlypurchasedfrom
Genoa."Thepeoplein thisstatethreaten[thegovernor],"
it noted,"becausebreadbecomes
moreandmoreexpensive,for whichtheyblamehis inabilityto govern."It contrastedthe
governor's
carelessness
withLouisXIV'ssolicitudein prosecuting
thecorruptfinanceminister
NicolasFouquet."Thebloodof the poorcalledforvendettaandjustice,"it proclaimed;
and
"thekingwasmoved. .. by zealforgoodgovernment
andby the desireto removeabuses."30
TheMacerata-based
newspaper,
Macerata,
evaluated
thepoliciesof theSpanishgovernment
in
Naplesin the wakeof the famineandplagueof 1656,whichhadstruckGenoaandmostof
southernItalyandcostNaplesnearlyhalfits population;
at the sametime,it emphasized
the
chiefvaluesthatall governments
oughtto observe."Itis saidthatthe viceroyfrequently
has
28
Enrico Jovane, II primo giornalismo torinese (Turin
1938) 81.
a passare, fanno grandissima compassione il vedere quelle
povere genti a trattenersi nella sponda di la tutti
addolorati per i patimenti e per il pericolo di esser
sorpresi dai francesi."
29 Gazzetta
di Genova,22 September1657:"Sista ancora
sul credere che vogliono passare il Po per attacare
Frascarolo,in segno di che tutte le genti di quelle terre 30 Nevio Matteini, II 'Riminio":una delleprimegazzette
fuggono di qua dal fiume per ricoverarsicon le di loro d'Italia. Saggio storico sui primordi della stampa
robbe entrodi Casale,e percheil Po e grosso,e si stenta (Bologna 1967) 9-12, 45.
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POLITICALPUBLISHINGAND ITS CRITICSIN SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY
ITALY
185
meetingsabout keeping the good governmentof this kingdomin peace, justice and prosperity,"it noted, "andfor this purposehe has loweredthe priceof meat and otherfoodstuffs."31
The emergenceof printednewspapersnot only in the largercenters-Naples, Bologna,
Florence, Ferrara,Modena-but in everymedium-sizedcenter,from Maceratato Ancona to
Foligno to Rimini,was for the communicationstheoristsof the time fair proof that previous
theorieswere inadequate.Whatthe newspapersunderscoredparticularly,
becauseof the printers)willingnessto bravethe perils of censorshipand commitcostlypaper,time, and type to a
relativelyyoung, and in Italy,untried and experimentalgenre, was the existence of a constant, regular,and voluminousmarketfor politicalinformationamongthe populationsof the
Italian cities, populations that currenttheory assumedto be apolitical and passive receptacles for informationto be administeredbit by bit.
Indeed, newspapersonly added to the specter that had worriedSarpi:the avalancheof
political informationassailingthe late Renaissancebarriersagainstencroachmenton a protected public space. Everymajorpolitical controversyseemed to call forth appealsto public
sympathyfor the belligerents.One such controversywas the Piedmontcivil war from 163845. Essentiallya familyquarrelthat escalatedinto a noble frondewith both sides summoning
reinforcementsfrom as many readersas possible and from the other Europeanpowers, the
war startedwhen renegadeprincesTommasoand Mauriziodi Savoiatried to unseat the regency government of Marie Christine of Bourbon during the minority of Duke Charles
EmmanuelI. An anonymouspamphletentitled The UnbiasedPoliticalHistorian,published
by a sympathizerof Tommasoand Maurizio,aimedto attractpublic approvalfor the leaders'
efforts to secure Spanishsupportagainstthe regency.32
Bewareof suggestionsabout a league
of Italianprinces to expel the Spanishallies, it warned,because such leagues alwaysend up
merelyfurtheringthe personalgainof the princesandtheirsympathizersandneverredounding
to the public good. Worseyet, the only two powersthat could lead a leaguewere politically
unstable:Rome changed generalswith everynew papacy,and Venice alreadyhad its hands
full ensuringits sovereigntyover subject cities like Veronaand Brescia,to the residentsof
which it resolutelyrefusedto grantthe privilegesof citizenship.Anotherpamphlet,TheShield
andSpearof the Montferratese
SoldierImpugned,publishedanonymouslyby hiredpen Vittorio
Siri for sympathizersof Marie Christinein the same struggle, arguedthat because Spain's
power in Italy had to be offset by France, the regent'sefforts to secure a French alliance
ought to be supportedby everyone."3
Repletewith argumentsfrom commonsense and from
history,such works sought to turn power strugglesinto battles of words.
At the end of every majorevent, slapdashhistoriescame out, tryingto put government
policies into a largerexplanatorycontext and makingclearwhich of them ought to be condemned. Genoese historianPietro GiovanniCapriataridiculedthe self-congratulatoryproclamationsof the Venetiangovernmentabout its policies during the plague of 1630, which
had decimatedits population.Insteadof followinga carefullyconceivedquarantineplan like
the Tuscangrandduke, the governmentunwiselydelegatedall sanitarymeasuresto the local
neighborhoodsto observeandenforce,Capriatanoted. "Andtherefore,greatwas the scourge,"
31 Macerata,
16 October1664:"Scrivonoche queil'Emin-
of the quarrel are analyzed in Romolo Quazza,
entissimoViceRetenessespesseConsulteperil buongovemo Preponderanza spagnuola (Milan 1950), chapter
di quel Regno,quietee giustizia,e abbondanza,havendo 6.
fattocalaredi prezzola camee altrecosecomestibili."
33 Lo scudo e l'asta del soldato monferrinoimpugnato
32 L'istorico politico indifferente
(1641). The issues (Cefali 1641).
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186
BRENDANDOOLEY
he noted, "andthe mortalityof the people."" NeapolitanhistorianAlessandroGiraffi analyzed the MasanielloRevolt of 1647 in Naples, a tax dispute that escalatedinto a constitutional crisis with demandsfor more popularrepresentationin government,and was named
for the rebel leaderwho held virtuallyunchallengedcontrolover the city for ten days. Giraffi
attributedthe outbreakto short-sightedfiscal policies of the Spanishgovernmentand the
Neapolitans'desire for freedom. "Fornaturehas clearlyinstilled in all men a detestationof
slavery;so they are unwillingto put their necks into the yoke of a master-especially when
the exorbitantexactionsimposed reducethem to the utmostgestureof despair."3
All this printedmaterialbegan to circulatemorewidelytowardthe mid-seventeenthcenturyas the censorshipapparatusitself beganto breakdown;and this was yet anothercauseof
the change in theories about printed communication.In spite of their constantcomplaints,
printersand booksellersactuallyfound manymethodsfor eludingthe authorities.In Naples,
wherethe local censorshiphad the worstreputationof all, printerAntonioBulifonsent manuscriptsto nearbyPozzuoliif he could not get them approvedin the maincity.There,the ecclesiasticalrepresentativewas farmorelenientthanthe (asBulifonsaid) "scrupulousfellow"close
To move dangerousbooks aroundItaly
by and his successor,"whoalso causedproblems."36
withoutriskinginspection,he used the free ports.Entranceto Florence,for example,was easiapparatussucceededin stoppingthe circuest throughLeghorn.Evenwhenthe administrative
lation of worksfor a time, the end resultwas often the oppositeof that intended.Romansatirist FerrantePallavicino,responsiblefor some of the most biting polemicsin his time against
hypocrisy,the papacy,and the lasciviousunderworldof whores,procuressesand roue youths
prowlingthe streetsof the Italiancities, made this a generalrule: "Prohibitionsso commonplace areno longerappreciated;andindeed,theymakebooksmorevaluable,so everyauthoris
encouragedto beg for them in orderto increasethe valueof his compositions."37
Respondingto this demand,the writersof the newspapers,pamphletsand historiesthemselves acted as though their audienceswere active, not passive. "Youare impatient to see
explainedin this gazette,"Pietro Socinitold his readersin the TurinSuccessidel Mondo,"the
news written two or three times from Paris in the manuscriptletters about a battle" during
the PortugueserevoltagainstSpain.38And again,"thechangein the currentsituation,"noted
Amadore Massi in the Riminio, "[has blocked] the desired notice about things in the Levant.""Finally,Maceratareportedthat "theletters that the mailmanwill bring the day after
tomorrow are eagerly awaited,"inasmuchas they were sure to contain informationabout
PietroGiovanniCapriata,Dell'historia,vol. 3 (Genova
1652) 341; and, for the quote, vol. 1, 701: "Vi fece
progressitali, che superandofrapoco tempoil maletutti
i rimedi,e le provvidenze,rimasela curaquasi affatto,
da chi governavale cose, abbandonata:
onde grandissima
fu la strage,e la mortalitadella gente."
34
22 (1992) 23-35.
36Lettere
dalRegnoadAntonioMagliabechi,ed. Amedeo
QuondamandMicheleRak(Naples1978)1, 119 (quote),
210. The view of Antonio Rotondo, "La censura
ecclesiasticae la cultura,"in Storiad'Italia,vol. 5, pt. 2, I
documenti(Turin1973) 1397-1492 shouldbe revisedin
thelightof SergioBertelliandPieroInnocenti,Bibliografia
machiavelliana
(Verona1979)lviii and subsequentwork.
AlessandroGiraffi,Ragguagliodel tumultodi Napoli
(Venezia 1647), Prologo. Issues in the revolt are analyzed by RosarioVillari,TheRevoltof Naples,tr.James
Newell with the assistance of John A. Marino (Cam- 37 II Corrieresvaligiato [Norimberga (=Venice), s.d.
bridge, Mass. 1993). The standardaccount of histori- (1641)], ed. ArmandoMarchi(Parma1984) 99.
ographyin the period, SergioBertelli'sRibelli, libertini
ed ortodossinella storiografiabarocca(Florence1973), 38Jovane, (as n. 28) 47.
is challengedby Peter Burke,"SomeSeventeenth-CenturyAnatomistsof Revolution,"Storiadellastoriografia 39Matteini,(as n. 30) 37.
35
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ITALY
POLITICALPUBLISHINGAND ITS CRITICSIN SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY
187
OWAT PIL
AgS APPPA5I
~
4'.
.1
_'
~~
N
/
/
'
do
Aft
49~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~j
_~~~~
.
Fig. 1. Entitled "Agliappassionatiper le guerre,"the engravingis reproducedin Sapienzafigurata,
MonumentaBergomensia,19 (Bergamo1967), plate 229.
"some favorable change concerning Imperial arms . . . against the Turk."40The implicit assumption in the efforts of Pallavicino, in those of the pamphleteers in the Piedmont civil war,
of Giraffi, of Capriata and the rest was that readers were eager to hear all sides of the story
and to evaluate the various information products on the market before becoming enraged
and enflamed by one or the other. A commonplace and self-serving writer's assumption but
one which the political elites were ready to take seriously for the first time.
More political information seemed to be available to more people than ever before. "Today
more books are born every year," noted the late seventeenth-century Venetian printer-journalist Girolamo Albrizzi, "than previously in an entire century."41 And with the emergence of more
media, media criticism began. "You who after silly tales are lusting / Anxious to hear rumors
and reports, / Quickly, run and look at the gazettes, / And see if the news is good, fine, or
disgusting"-wailed a Paduan pamphleteer.42A print (fig. 1) from 1684 by Bolognese engraver
Giuseppe Mitelli, entitled "To the War Enthusiasts,"depicted the reading of a gazette among an
audience apparently overwhelmed by the news. The city square in Bologna, where the public
sphere was once defined only by the proclamations and the ceremonies of the local archbishop
and his direct superior, the pope, or defiled by riot and revolt, now served as a metaphor
40Macerata, 18 September 1664: "Si attendono con
grandissimo desiderio le lettere che portara dimani I'altro
ordinario di Vienna sperandosi d'intender con esse
qualche prospero avvenimento all'Armi Imperiali, che
con l'ultime della Corte Cesarea si e saputo si trovassero
in disposizione di appigliarsi a qualche buon impresa
contro i Turchi."
41
The quote is from Galleriadi Minerva,1 (1696), 'Ai
letterati."
Anon., Istoria graziosa e piacevole, la quale contiene
un bellissimo contrasto, che fd la cittd di Napoli con la
cittd di Venezia, dove si vede la grandezza e la
magnificenza di queste due gran cittd d'Italia (Padua:
42
Penada, n.d.), datable from internal references to the
late seventeenth century. My quote is from the first
unnumberedpage: "Voi che state sulle barzellette /
Curiosi di saper chiassi, e novelle, / Veloci andate a
legger le gazzette, / Se le nuove son buon, o brutte, o
belle, /..
."
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188
BRENDANDOOLEY
for a new public sphere of discussion and debate, verging on contestation.Yet in response
to the heated public debate in late seventeenth-century
Italiancities on whetherto ally with
Franceor with Spain,Mitellicould only remarkacidly,"mynews reporters(novellisti), let me
give you some news:this cryingout of yoursfor Franceand Spainis the greatestfolly thereis!"
The reactionof the governmentsof the variousItalianstates to what now seemed to be
not just an avalancheof information,but an inexhaustiblemarketthat demandedinformation fromeverypossiblesource,was to takefull advantageof theirown officialprintinghouses.
By the 1640s, every state had designatedone, often the same house that had been printing
governmentproclamations,notices, and certificatesfor years.In Turin,this was the shop of
Giovanni Sinibaldo,successorto the shop that the Savoydukes had helped establishin the
previous centuryas part of an effort to encouragethe developmentof the newly introduced
printingindustry.In Rome, it was the TipografiaVaticana;in Milan,the Malatestafamily;in
Bologna,the Manolessi;in Modena,the Soliani;in Florence,GirolamoSignorettiand Pietro
Nestri,closelyfollowedby VincenzioVangelisti,PieroMatiniandFrancescoOnofri;in Modena,
GiambattistaGrana;in Ferrara,the Marestifamily;and in Venice,the Pinellifamily.43
These firmsthe governmentsencouragedor even commissionedto celebrate,praise,and
explainthe veryactionsthatwerebeing regardedwith skepticism,deridedand even impugned
in the independentpress.The Ferraresegovernmenthad its printinghouse publishchronicles
of Ferraresefamilies,lists of officials, and "allthe most beautifuland curiousmemories,sacred and profane, and every most heroic and excellent action of many lords, prelates and
princes of the House of Este," the local dynasty."The Florentinegovernmentinvolved its
official printinghouse in alertingsubjectsto the affairsof the Habsburgdynastywith which
the Mediciwas alliedby marriage;it publicizedthe mourningfor GrandDuke FerdinandoII
in 1671 and the celebration of the marriagebetween Violante Beatrice of Bavaria and
Ferdinandode' Mediciin 1688.45The Bolognesegovernmenttriedto restoreorderaftera 1678
bread riot by using its official print shop to divert attentiontoward age-old public ceremonies- 'because the ancientcustomof this countryrequiresa solemn demonstrationof joy to
the BolognesePeople in memoryof the recentcivic disturbances."46
The Milanesegovernment
43Ulvioni, (as n. 27); Fumagalli,Lexicontypographicum idem,Cronologiaet istoriade capie giudicide Saviidella
Italiae (Florence1905);C. Santoro,"Tipografimilanesi cittddi Ferrara(Ferrara1683).
del secolo XVII," La Bibliofilia 67 (1966) 303-49;
GiuseppeVernazza,Dizionariodei tipografideiprincipali 4S Relazionedel'elezionein Re dei Romanidella maestd
correttorie intagliatoriche operanonegli Stati Sardidi di LeopoldoRe di Boemia (Florence 1658); Manfredi
Terraferma
e piiuspecialmentein Piemontesino all'anno Macigni,EsequiedelSerenissimoFerdinandoII granduca
1821 (Turin1859); Mantua,Archiviodi Stato, D'Arco di Toscana(Florence1671);AlessandroSegni,Memorie
224-27: Carlo D'Arco, Notizie delle accademie,dei di viaggi e feste per le reali nozze dei serenissimisposi
giornalie delle tipografiechefiorironoin Mantua,vol. 3; ViolanteBeatricedi Bavierae Ferdinando,principe di
FrancescoBarbieri,Librie stampatori
nellaRomadeipapi Toscana(Florence1688).
(Rome 1965); Alfonso Mirto,Stampatori,editori,librai
nella secondametddel Seicento(Firenze1984);Albano 46Racconto dellafesta popolaredella Porchetta,fatta in
Sorbelli, Storia della stampa a Bologna (Bologna Bolognaquest'anno1678,dedicatedto Gonfaloniereand
1929).
Anziani del 4o bimestre (Bologna 1678): "Non tanto
perche l'allegrezza pubblica sia stata mai sempre
44 The work in questionwas Antonio Libanori,Ferrara introdotta
persollievocomunedellegenti,quantoperche
d'oroimbrunito(Ferrara1665-67), printedby Alfonso lo stile antico di questa patria richiede una solenne
and GiambattistaMaresti,and reprintedin 1674 when dimostrazionedi gioia al Popolo Bolognesein memoria
the Maresti became ducal printers. The others are delle trasandateturbolenzecivili gia estinte nel giorno
Alfonso Maresti,Teatrogenealogicoet historicodell'an- 24 agosto,si e celebrataparimentequest'annola consueta
tiche et illustrefamiglie di Ferrara(Ferrara1678-81); FestaPopolaredella Porchetta."
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POLITICALPUBLISHINGAND ITS CRITICSIN SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY
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189
had its official printinghouse produce a set of municipalhistoriesby variousauthorsand a
treatiseon militaryexpendituresand taxes by local lawyerAmbrogioOppizzone.Moreover,
this governmentand that of Piedmonteventuallygave the officialprint shop exclusiverights
to publish the local newspaper.And to ensurepropercoverage,Piedmontgave the journalist
a 1,000 lire pension.47
The Venetiangovernmentoutdid them all. It had its official printerproduce a complete
edition of the works of politicaltheoristTommasoRoccabellafavoringthe Venetianpolitical
system.48It had him do official textbooks using the "gloriousdeeds of the Venetianheroes"
as lessons for education in rhetoric.49It commissionedhim to publish sixteen orations by
GiovanniFrigimelicaRobertiand others in praiseof Nicolo Sagredo,raisedto the dogeship
in 1675. And it also had him publish works supportingthe main public policy initiativeof
the time, which was the war to stop the occupationof Creteby the OttomanTurks.Accordingly,he supplied narrativesof victorieswhen they occurred,as at Focea (Phocaea)in 1648.
And when there was nothing particularlyimportantto report,he supplied informationconcerningthe armada's"happyprogress."50
Eachpamphletsharedthe experiencesof "ourarms"
in "ourbattles,"even if the readershad nothing to do with those battles except to help pay
for weapons and ships.
The Venetiangovernmentthen released,aftersome hesitation,the next state-supported
official historiographyafterAndreaMorosini's,that of BattistaNani on the marketin Italian
for the formationof popularviews.5'Yet, in carryingout this policy, it did not try to stamp
out all alternativeviews. Instead,it seemedto agreeimplicitlywith Pietro GiovanniCapriata,
author of an unofficial account that demonstratedthe "unsuccessfulnessof the Venetian
forces" trying to recoverthe formerlysubjectisland of Crete after the Ottomaninvasionof
1645. The Senators,noted Capriata,permittedthe distributionin Venice of his alternative
account simplybecause "thoseverywise men, in their good judgment,have understoodthat
our style, even thoughit inclinestoward. .. the truth,is in no wayaliento the esteem,veneration, and admiration[due to] the majestyof that most augustgovernment."52
The circulation
47Jovane,(as n. 28) 61; Bellocchi, (as no. 26) vol. 2, 3943.
culturaveneta,vol. 4, II Seicento,2 parts (Vicenza1973)
1:72-83.
48Iddio operante(Venice 1645); Il principedeliberante "2PietroGiovanniCapriata,Dell'historia,3 vols. (Genoa
(Venice 1646); Il principe morale (Venice 1645); Il 1638-52), 2:unpaginatedpreface:"Conmaggiorverita,
principepratico(Venice1645).
cosi, con rispettomaggiorho i successipoco felici delle
Arme Veneziane rappresentati; havendo nelle cose
49 Il vello d'oro, ovvero la retorica veneziana, dove
dubbie sempre nella piu benigna interpretazione
principalmenteco'pregisingolaridi Venezia,e con molti inclinato. In maniera,che nostre opere sono publicafatti gloriosidegli eroi venezianis'insegnal'artedel ben mente nella stessa citta di Veneziavendute, lette e con
parlare(Venice1667).
applausinon minoriche altrovericevute,dove quellede'
loro scrittori rimanendo affatto sterminate, non
soRelazionedella vittoriaottenutadalle armi della Ser. compaionoin luce, e gli autorisono statipuniti,e puniti
Repubblicadi Veneziacontrol'armataTurchesca
in Asia ancorai capitani, che mal si disportarononei sinistri
nel Porto di Focchie, 12 maggio 1649 (Venezia 1649), incontridelle armi,e delle pubblichefattioni. Le quali
followed by Continuazione dei felici progressi della cose mi fan credereche quei sapientissimiSignori,col
Serenissima Repubblica di Venezia nella Dalmazia loro buon giudizio,habbinoappreso,che il nostrostile,
(Venezia1649).
benche con tutti ugualmenteamicodellaverita,non sia
peropuntoalienodallastima,veneratione,e ammiratione
51 This historiographyis criticizedfor its very vulgarity dellaMaestadi quelAugustissimo
governo,il qualedopo
by Gino Benzoni, "La storiografia e l'erudizione il Romanofra quanto o si legga o si sappia essersi al
storico-antiquario:
gli storicimunicipali,"in Storiadella mondo ritrovati,non ha mai avutosuperiore. . ."
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BRENDANDOOLEY
of political information,Capriataimplied,could not be stopped;the best policy was to avoid
its worst effects.
Once the governmentsfound they could put across their own point of view without
damagingthe press as an industry,they began to put their economic policies ahead of their
own press regulations.In most of the Italianstates, but especiallyVenice and Naples, governments disassociatedthemselvesfrom repugnantideas printed in their states by permitting the publication of books with false place names." In addition, the Venetian government tacitly allowed booksellers to avoid paying duty and showing the censor'spermission
for small packages of books of any kind sent through private mailing addresses.The government of Naples abolished the law requiringthe consignment to the government of a
certainnumberof copies of newly printedworks, and that of Tuscanyrelaxed enforcement
of the law calling for the delivery of a certain number of free copies to public libraries,
both of which were originallydesigned in part to discourageexcessive printing. Moreover,
the Tuscan government allowed news sheets to circulate, at least for a time, without any
supervisionat all, for the expressed purpose of encouragingthe industry."[First Secretary
Andrea] Cioli gave the order," State Auditor Alessandro Vettori later recalled, "to let
them print without having them pass through my hands, so they could go out quickly to
Rome by the same post from Genoa.""4The behavior of all these governments seemed to
suggest that the production of books was no different from the production of any other
article.
The circulationof all this literaturehelped bring about a majorchangein theories about
the communicationof meaningin politics, a changefromwhat mightbe called the monopolist theory of communicationto what could be called the free markettheory.This is not to
imply that a wholly free press was in anyone'smind at this point in Europeanhistory.Even
Ludovico Antonio Muratori,one of the chief pre-Enlightenmentfigures of the early eighteenth century,supportedsome sort of censorship."The new view simplystated that control
was effective up to a point; and beyond that, persuasionand argumentwere necessaryto
produce favorableopinion regardingpoliticalobjectives.
This changeis first discerniblein the 1670sin the work of NeapolitanjuristGiambattista
De Luca. Born in Potenza and educated at the Universityof Naples, he spent most of his
careeras a lawyerin Rome,first as a consultantfor privatefamiliesand subsequentlyfor the
Spanishmonarchy.Some of this experiencehe distilled in his main work, the eighteen-volume Theatrumveritatiset iustitiae,publishedfrom 1669-81, where he included some 2,500
of his most importantopinions, in a veritableencyclopediaof the jurisprudenceof his day.
Then he translatedthe whole work, callingit a compendiumof "civil,canon, feudal and municipal law, moralizedin the Italian language,"explaininghis motives in a disquisitionon
"whetherit is a good idea to analyzethe law in the vernacular."He gave the usual reasons
againstsuch a practice,based on a notion of a limited public sphere that Sarpiwould have
53 Examplesare in MarinoParenti,Dizionariodei luoghi
di stampafalsi, inventati o supposti (Florence 1951),
passim.
"Unacontroversadisposizionesulle copie d'obbligonel
secolo diciassettesimo,"in Studi bibliografici.Atti del
convegnostoricosul libroitaliano(Florence1967) 16974.
54MariaAugustaMorelli,Delle primegazzettefiorentine
(Florence1963) 6. In addition,ClementinaRotondi,"II S5 Riflessionisoprail buon gusto, in Operedi Ludovico
diritto di stampain Toscana,"La Bibliofilia82 (1980) AntonioMuratori, ed. GiorgioFalco andFiorenzoForti
137; Paolo Ulvioni, (as n. 27) 93; Caterina Santoro, (Milan1964)256.
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ITALY
POLITICALPUBLISHINGAND ITS CRITICSIN SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY
191
found most congenial. After all, law was the better part of politics in times of peace, so it
could well be consideredone of the arcanaprincipum.56 "If the ignorantmassesshould come
to know about the exceptions and the loopholesby which crimescan be excused or contracts
and obligationsevaded,"he noted, paraphrasinghis adversaries,"theywould be much better
able to commitexcesses or to defraud."Or, worse yet, "everyonemight presumeto play the
judge or the counselloror the promoterof causes.""In other words, the legal side of civil
society would be taken out of the officialpublic sphereand placed in the privateone. Yet he
believed that the necessityof openingup the legalprocessto popularscrutinyfar outweighed
all of these counter-arguments.Lawyershad assumedtoo much powerto pervertthe law for
their own purposes. "The judges and tribunalsoppress,"he noted, "drawinghearingsout
interminablyand making themselvesthe mastersnot only of the propertyin question but
even of the liberty of the litigants."58Thus, he took it upon himselfto explain in detail each
element of the law and its purpose, for the benefit not only of princes, whom such knowledge would permit to govern better, but also to the litigants themselves, "so they can, as
much as possible, escape the tyrannyof lawyers."
Far awayfromproverbiallylawyer-infestedRomeand Naples,the juristGiulio Dal Pozzo
of the Universityof Padua expressed the same ideas. He addressedhis "civil institutes,"a
work claimingto reconcile Romanand Venetianlaw with the commentariesof ancient and
modernjurists,to the same audience. "If anyonewonderswhy I have chosen to write in my
native language"[Italian,that is, not Venetian],he observed,paraphrasingan argumentof
De Luca, "I respondbrieflythat since the laws speakto everyonewho has to obey them, they
ought to be understood by everyone.""9He defended his choice on the basis of the
government'snecessity to justify its actions before a reasoningpublic. "Whenthe government imposes a gabel, this primarilyregardsthe public utility,"he noted, "becausethe public sustains the armies in time of war or restoresthe treasuryin time of peace. But [such
Giambattista De Luca, II dottor volgare, ovvero il
compendiodi tutta la legge civile, canonica,feudale, e
municipale.. . Moralizzatoin linguaitaliana,first published in Rome, 1673,whichI consultedin the 6-volume
edition (Venice1740);herevol. 1, 18: "Importapoco ...
l'essersudditipiCu
d'unche d'unaltro,maprincipalmente
importa,che sianoben governaticon la buonae diligente
dellagiustizia,la qualeconservala pace
amministrazione
civile e la libertadel commercio,dallaqualenasconole
ricchezzee la grandezzadell'istessoprincipato...." Informationabout De Luca is found in the entryby Aldo
Mazzacane in Dizionario biograficodegli Italiani 38
(1990) 340-47.
56
"5De Luca, vol. 1, 11: "Perchein tal modo venendo in
cognizionedel volgoignorantequelleeccezionie cautele,
con le quali si possano scusarei delitti, o impugnarei
contratti,e obblighi, si renderapiu facile il commettere
gli eccessi, ovvero di defraudarequella buona fede, la
quale con la naturalesemplicitasi suole adempiredagli
idioti. .. ."
'8 Ibid., 12: "Saprannocome megliogovernarei popoli a
loro soggetti, e rescriverenelle suppliche,e nei ricorsi,
come anche conoscere fraudi dei consiglieri, e degli
assessori, e l'oppressioni, che si fanno dai Giudici, e
Tribunali,eternandole cause,e rendendosipatroninon
solo della robba che si litiga, ma della volonta e
liberta dei litiganti, mentre cosi non sarannodegni di
scusa....
59 Giulio Dal Pozzo, Le istituzionidellaprudenzacivile,
fondatesulle leggi romanee conformatialle leggivenete,
nel quale si stabilisceil jus universaledelle genti con
dei giurisconsulti,con le massimedei politici, e
l'autorita'
con riscontrideglistorici.Operapostuma(Venice1697),
"Io non scrivo a critici, perci6 non mi premuniscodi
alcuno scudo per difendermidalle loro punture.Ma se
alcunosi meravigliasseperche scrivonella linguanatia,
brevementerispondo,perche le leggi parlandoa tutti,
che devonoubbidirle,devonoessereinteseda ogn'uno."
I compareDe Luca,Il dottorvolgare,vol. 1, 13:"L'istessa
natura, o ragion naturale insegna, che dovendosi
obbligare il popolo ad osservare una legge, con
sottoporlo al gastigo nella persona e beni, in caso
d'inosservanza,debbasaperequel che ha da osservare."
Among the first historians to notice Dal Pozzo was
Gaetano Cozzi, Repubblicadi Veneziae stati italiani.
Politicae giustiziadal secoloXVI al secoloXVIII(Turin
1982) 324.
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BRENDANDOOLEY
things] comprise the utility of privatepersons by consequence,since the Public maintains
peace and religion,which are the most preciouscapitalof Man."60Thus, the only good reason for keeping quiet about politics was a purelypracticalone: because public affairs "are
infinite"and "not because . . . public affairscannotbe broughtto the attentionalso of him
who does not govern."61
Both Dal Pozzo and De Luca supposed that subjectswere not passivebut must be won
over by the prince;and the way to do that was by persuadingthem that he acts in their interests. The view of the earlyseventeenthcenturyhad thus changedinto its exact opposite. The
public sphere is not where the glories of the prince are representedand sustained.It is the
spherewhere the representationsof prince and subjectsare exchangedand occasionallydiscussed and debated.And it is the spherewherethe prince'sactionsareheld up to scrutinyon
the basis of the particularbenefit those actions are supposedto bring to the whole state.
All of these accomplishmentsof the seventeenthcenturyin the field of communications
were summed up not by a seventeenth-centurythinker,althoughhe is often considered as
such, but by one of the earlyeighteenth-century,GiambattistaVico. He noticed for the first
time that the transformationof ideas about communicationin politics depended on historical and culturalcircumstancesconnectedwith the developmentof each civilization.He did
not believe contemporaryevents in Italy or the rest of Europe were unique. A change to
more open communicationpracticeshad previouslyoccurredin antiquityduringthe passage
from what he called the "heroic"governmentsof the kings of Rome, considered to be divinely ordained and based on the rule of the strongest,to the "human"governmentof the
RomanRepublic,basedon reason,benevolence,andequity.A comparisonbetweenthis change
and the passagefrom the modernequivalentof "heroic"government,namely,feudal aristocracy,to the beginningsof "human"governmentsin moderntimes yielded one of the fundamentalpatternsin history.In the "heroic"or aristocraticstage, political discoursewas intentionally concealed from the purview of the general populace and kept as a sort of professional monopolyamongthe rulingclass. "Naturallycontinuingto practicereligiouscustoms,
they religiouslycontinuedto keep the laws mysteriousand secret (this secrecybeing the soul
and life of aristocraticstates)."62Discussing political interests only among themselves,the
aristocratsdecided generallyfor the public good because of their privateinterestsas proprietors. In the "human"stage,by contrast,everyonewas requiredto know the law and to judge
private utility in relation to the utility of others. "Naturallyopen, generous and magnanimous (being commandedby the multitude, who naturallyunderstandnatural equity) . . .
naturallythey went on to makepublic what had been secret."Such had happenedin Europe
within recent memory.
On the basis of this observationand reasoning,Vico made the closest thing to a policy
Dal Pozzo, Le istituzioni, 46: "Quandoil Pubblico
impone alcunagabellao cosa simile,questerisguardano
principalmentela pubblica utilita, perche il pubblico
sostienele armatein tempodi guerra,e risarcisceil Erario
in tempo di Pace. Ma comprendonol'utilitadei privati
per consequenza,mentreil Pubblico mantienela pace,
e la religione, che sono li piu preziosi capitali
dell'uomo."
60
61
Ibid., 45: "Non perche non vi fossero altre cose di
ragione pubblica, delle quali ne puo aver notitia anco
chi non governa,maperchequestesono infinite,bastera
stabilirneuna regola universale,che Ragionpubblicae
quella,che e utile al Pubblicoprincipalmentee al Privato
per consequenza...."
62
TheNewScience,tr.ThomasGoddardBerginandMax
HaroldFisch (Ithaca,N.Y. 1968) 350 (hereand below).
A broaderdiscussionof the stage theory,which omits
the aspects connectedwith communicationbut is still
most useful, is found in Leon Pompa, Vico:A Studyof
the "NewScience"(Cambridge19902), chapters9-12.
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POLITICALPUBLISHINGAND ITS CRITICSIN SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY
ITALY
193
recommendationthat appearsin the generallydetachedNew Science.Afterthe door to popular
participationin political discoursehad been opened in the "human"stage of governments
and the principles of equity upon which the people naturallyjudged political actions had
been establishedas the principlesof government,that door could once againbe closed. Vico
shrankfrom sanctioningthe kind of regularpolitical contentiousnessthat was to fascinate
Montesquieuabout the Englishsystemor that was to be implied in the press theoryof Neapolitan EnlightenmentjuristGaetanoFilangieri.Filangierimade the press an indispensable
part of a modernconstitution,responsiblefor providingthe conduitbetween the public will
and political practice.The "tribunalof public opinion,"he argued,was responsiblefor "administeringto the governmentall the possible aids for preservingand extending the good,
and all mannerof obstacles in the way of the introductionof evil."63Vico refused to allow
actualcontrol over the public sphereto be deliveredinto the privaterealm.And in the "perfect monarchies"that he expected eventuallyto take over in the last stage of history,the
monarchwould be ableto foreseewhatequitypopularviewswould assignto particularcourses
of action and take whatevercourse most agreedwith that." Since publicitywould therefore
no longer be necessary,secrecyin governmentcould safelybe restored.
Modest though they were by comparisonwith Enlightenmentconcepts, the new concepts of the public sphere that emergedin the late seventeenthcenturynot only in Italy but
elsewherein Europestronglyinfluencedthe changingexpectationsthat orderedthe political
choices of elites in charge,even when power was not seriouslychallenged.And the goals of
state building came to be redefinedin terms of what could actuallybe accomplishedas the
mandate to rule moved from the realm of symbolismto the realm of persuasion.Indeed,
changingnotions about the possibilitiesof coordinatingaction and reachingunderstanding
by printed expressions provided one of the practicalbases upon which a social science of
politics could be based, and they convergedin the ideas of John Locke and PierreBayle.So,
if the history of earlymodernpolitical thoughtis to be writtennow with due attentionto its
linguisticaspects,as recentstudiespromise,the thirddimensionin the communicationsrevolution needs to be regardedas a major currentin early modern Europe and brought ever
more sharplyinto focus.
Illuministi italiani, ed. Franco Venturi,Riformatori
napoletani(Milan-Naples1962) 749-50.
63
64 TheNew Science,351.
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