The idea that underpins the project is to use the material evidence from thousands of books.
Along with surviving copies, data collected from archival documents are regularly used to fully reconstruct the history of 15th century books, from the time they are printed, until they enter the current location in libraries: historical catalogues, library and post-mortem inventories, notarial acts, such as contracts arranged by the early printing firms, sale documents etc. The database MEI is particularly capable to host and value information gathered from archival documents: not only individual copies which no longer exist (but were clearly documented to have existed at a certain time and place) can be recorded in the database, and therefore help quantifying how much we have lost over the centuries, what, and why. But entire libraries can be reconstructed. Collections dispersed because of the dissolution of religious houses, or sale by later owners, and today scattered in European and American libraries, are brought together again in the database, highlighting the extent of the dispersal, and ground for its historical investigation.
More than one collection is having a ‘second life’ in MEI (such as the collection of S. Giorgio Maggiore of Venice) in this way.
Italy is reknown to have been a major player in the early stages of printing (more than 30% of 15th editions have been printed in Italy). All researchers involved in the 15cBOOKTRADE are daily dealing with Italian libraries’ archival documents. Moreover, Italian Archives are familiar to all involved in the study of early printing, because often archival documents have been vital in determining where, when, and who printed a book (information not always present in incunabula).
Finally, the critical edition of a document is at the centre of one of the objectives of the project: the ‘Zornale’ of the Venetian bookseller Francesco De’ Madiis, which lists about 25,000 sales, with prices, for the period 1484-88, is a unique source for our understanding of the economic implications surrounding the introduction of printing.