Music-printing in late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century Florence: Giorgio Marescotti, Cristofano Marescotti and Zanobi Pignoni

A number of scholars have begun to explore the activities of music-printers in sixteenth-century Italy. The first music-print produced by movable type was issued by Ottaviano Petrucci in 1501, and by the 1540s improvements in printing techniques, and particularly the introduction of single-impression printing, had set music-printing on a firm commercial footing, first and foremost in Venice, the centre of the printing trade on the peninsula. The two chief Venetian music-printers in the mid-century, Antonio Gardano and Girolamo Scotto, headed commercial enterprises the organisation of which merits close study by economic historians. But the activities of these and other music-printers must also be examined for their effect on contemporary musical culture. Through their editorial policies and commercial strategies, printers such as Gardano and Scotto had an undeniable influence on the composition and dissemination of music in this period, creating and defining a market or markets for their wares which increasingly directed the activities of contemporary composers.