The Laire affair and the Roman editions of the fifteenth century in the works exchanged between Tommaso Verani and Giovanni Battista Audiffredi

Abstract

The paper traces the events that led to the publication of the Catalogus historico-criticus Romanarum editionum saeculi XV – which the Dominican Giovanni Battista Audiffredi published in the context of the dispute with the French Francois-Xavier Laire and his essay on Roman typography – through the correspondence between the librarian of the Casanatense Library and the Augustinian Tommaso Verani. At the same time, the paper offers a picture of the erudite studies conducted by Verani and of the reorganizations he carried out in the archives and libraries of the Observant Congregation of Lombardy, activities that allowed him to come into contact with some of the greatest intellectuals of the Italian 18th century.

Keywords

• incunabula
• cataloging
• roman printing
• giovanni battista audiffredi
• tommaso verani
• francois-xavier laire