They shamnelessly print, at a negligible price, material which may, alas, inflame impressionable youths, while a true writer dies of hunger. Among the latter this servant of yours has been driven out, bewailing the damage which results from the printers' cunning. The things I have described do not apply to you, but to the utterly uncouth types of people who have driven reputable writers from their homes. " I know that you always hate printed books crammed with the foolishness of common folk, and that you follow sound precepts. You will read the holy writings of the saints, which I have recast in the verancular tongue, telling of the deeds of the Fathers. Accept this little book which I am sending to a great man, with, I pray, a favourable disposition, with a gift or with a reward. With these frank verses, wending through no long preambles and circumlocutions, I respectfully present my small gift. In the past you have prayed on your own for the peace of those dear to you from now even the least of men should pray for you as Doge. You have helped many by distributing largesse within your means now it will be fiting for you to assist larger numbers from your abundance. "You have lived a holy life as a private citizen, keeping yourself to yourself now you will live a just life as Doge, I am sure, living for the people also. Doge Nicolo, you will prepare celestial realms for yourself, where you may disport yourself joyously. "May you hold sway for ever, Marcellan house, now seated on the throne, exalted as you deserve. Throughout the translation scribes are called "writers." It was translated from the Latin by Shelagh Grier and issued in 1986 by the Hayloft Press as a pamphlet with an introduction by Martin Lowry in an edition of 350 copies. The text of Filippo's polemic is preserved in Venice's Biblioteca Marciana (Italian Manuscripts, Class I, 72 (5074) folios iv.-2r. Needless to say, Filippo's objections to the new technology were, for all intents and purposes, ignored. That printers undercut the prices of hand-written manuscripts was a very real issue, and perhaps the central motivation of Filippo's florid protest, more than his claim that printed books were sources of moral corruption. One senses considerable exaggeration in Filippo's protests, especially since the texts printed in Venice by this time were primarily editions of what we would call tame classical authors, except perhaps for Ovid. Printing had only recently been introduced to the city of Venice, but evidently the scribal community already felt threatened by the new technology, and its lower costs, though its impact may not have been as dramatic as Filippo's polemic would imply. Between August 1473 and December 1474, during the short time that Nicolò Marcello held the office of Doge, or chief magistrate, of Venice, Filippo de Strata, a monk and scribe in the Benedictine community of San Cipriano in Murano, addressed a polemic against printing to the Doge.
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