Huck wrote:I made some analyses according the database ...
http://www.gesamtkatalogderwiegendrucke.de/
According this Nicolaus Laurentii is the dominating printer in Florence, surpassed by the nunnery printing house of San Jacopo in Ripoli, but this was installed by Laurentii himself and Johann Petri in 1476, so it probably wasn't a competing printing house, but somehow simply based on partnership or another arrangement between the printers. Johann Petri worked in it probably helped by the nuns.
First Johann Petri worked independent in Florence (1471-1473), then Nicolaus Laurentii appeared and Petri stopped his business. Johann Petri reappeared 1485, when Ripoli had stopped in 1484 and Laurentii stopped in 1485.
Totally Johann Petri is known from 224 own or partnership prints (the Ripoli-prints not counted; in Florence 146 are noted, others are from Basel, Passau and from Ferrara - it's not sure, if these are from the same printer), there are not much printers who have worked more. There are other printers with the name "Petri", probably a family originally from Mainz.
From 1470-1480, 11 years, appeared about 125 texts in Florence (some are insecure and have an unknown origin), from this 110 (nearly 90 %) are given to Nicolaus Laurentii, Johann Petri or to the nuns of Ripoli (actually they might have done some more of the "unknown group").
Since 1481 the foreign competition is rising.
The numbers of 1480, 1485, 1490, 1495 and 1500 are probably too high (and all others too low), cause some dates are only estimated and mostly given to round numbers.
1470 - 1
1471 - 2-5, 1JP
1472 - 4, 3JP
1473 - 1, 1JP
1474 - 1, 1N
1475 - 4, 1N, 1R
1476 - 5, 3N, 1R
1477 - 27, 7N, 19R
1478 - 22, 5N, 15R
1479 - 16, 2N, 11R
1480 - 38, 7N, 26R (higher cause "ca".)
1481 - 27, 5N, 8R
1482 - 19, 1N, 6R
1483 - 25, 4N, 14R
1484 - 10, 1R
1485 - 48, 6N (higher cause "ca".)
1486 - 8
1487 - 28
1488 - 29
1489 - 27
1490 - 91 (higher cause "ca".)
1491 - 22
1492 - 33
1493 - 19
1494 - 24
1495 - 108 (higher cause "ca".)
1496 - 80
1497 - 78
1498 - 40
1499 - 10
1500 - 107 (higher cause "ca".)
(I counted not very careful)
For the Berlinghieri atlas the database gives the estimation "not after 1480". Considering this as "true", the printing passivity of Laurentii in 1479 is interesting (only 2 editions), it might have been a year, in which he focused on the production of the atlas - and so hadn't much time for other projects.
I've to add a few things, having researched "Johannes Petri", who is in the research a similar phenomenon as Nicolaus Laurentii Alemanus and Donnus Nicolaus Germanus (which may be only one man).
There's a Johannes Petri in Basel
There's a Johannes Petri in Passau
There's a Johannes Petri in Florence ... this is the one, who knew Nicolaus Laurentii and worked independently 1472/73 and then probably in the printshop nunnery of Jacobo of Ripoli till 1484.
In the longer relation between the Nicolaus Laurentii it's the impression of the observer, that Nicolaus Laurentii is mightier than Johannes Petri, but both printing shops seem to work somehow together. The correlating phenomenon is, that both shops finished their activity around the same time (1484/85), possibly according the condition, that Nicolaus Laurentii ended his activity, either caused by retirement or death or sickness.
In 1486 Johannes Petri reappears in Florence for a single printing as an independent printer.
Then this is repeated in April 1490 for another edition, and then follows a long and intensive cooperation with a Laurentius de Morgianis, who is constantly named as the first and then followed by "Johannis Petri".
Laurentius de Morgianis has 170 printings (so rather much) in 15th century and the most (after a rough overview) maybe 85% were made in combination with Johann Petri, who has totally 146 printings in Florence, and only made a handful in independent manner (I found only 1 between 1491-1500).
The Johann Petri from Passau started to work 1485 and prints till 1497 totally 70 editions ... but the production slows down from 1491-1497 with only 8 editions in 7 years, mostly only repeatings of earlier editions.
The context of both lifes give the condition, as if the Johann Petri is one man, active in two cities, with a major stay in Passau between 1485-1490 and all the other time in Florence, somehow managing, that the Passau printing house still worked occasionally between 1491-97.
From the 3rd "Johann Petri" we've the data that he came to Basel some time after 1460 and received citizen rights in 1488 - with no word, what he might have done in the meantime.
http://www.schwabe.ch/index.php?id=547
His activities led later to the oldest still existing publishing house. He's in this description somebody, "der noch zu Lebzeiten Gutenbergs in Mainz die Buchdruckerkunst und den Schriftguss erlernt hatte" (who has learnt printing in Mainz in a time, when Gutenberg still lived). From the Florentine Johann Petri we've also the the note, that he was of "Moguntiae" ... and probably learned there. From the Johann Petri in Basel there is the knowledge, that he came Hammelburg ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammelburg
... which is not too far from Mainz and for a printer it was probably worthwhile to tell, that he was of Mainz, even if this wasn't very precise and he only learned printing in Mainz. From the same location Hammelburg came Johann Froben, later Frobensius, to which the Basel Johann Petri made an agreement for a printing house in 1496 (says wiki) or 1494 (a first project is noted in the database), which is noted in a handful edition till 1500 (totally Froben made 20 editions in 15th century according the database)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Froben
In 1500 it must have come to a agreement with the printer Amerbach and then Amerbach, Froben and the Basel Johann Petri worked together - I found one Amerbach-Petri cooperative book project said to be from before 1489, possibly around the time, when the Basel Johann Petri got the citizen rights in Basel 1488.
And then there is Koberger, the biggest German book producer and trader of this time. In a letter to Amerbach in 1502 (who kept all his business letters and so we've a lot of information about his deals with Koberger) ...
Wenn aber der sonst so bescheidene Koberger mit gerechtem Selbstgefühl (21. März 1502) schreiben kann, daß auf ihm, Amerbach und Johann Petri fast ausschließlich der deutsche Buchhandel ruhe, so läßt sich doch voraussetzen, daß die kleinern Verleger und Buchführer, schon damals so gut wie später, dem Beispiel der großen gefolgt sind und regelmäßig die Messe besucht haben; denn obgleich der buchhändlerische Meßbesuch ebenso gut den Verkehr mit dem großen Publikum, anfänglich wohl sogar ausschließlich, ins Auge faßte, so mußten doch jene Kleinen immerhin die Hauptabnehmer für diese Großen sein.
http://de.wikisource.org/wiki/Geschicht ... es_Kapitel
... Koberger expresses, that Amerbach, Koberger himself and the Basel Johann Petri were the most important men in the German book trade.
How could he tell so? Amerbach (166 book productions in 15th century), Koberger (262 book productions in 15th century) and only a handful of book productions known by the Basel Johann Petri would construct a not even picture between the 3, which only gets a face, if I put all 3 "Johann Petri's" together and regard them as "one man" only and have then for this person 224 plus a number of ca. 125 productions in the nunnery of Ripoli in Florence and under this condition I really see an impressive man of much experience and influence.
The picture, that the Florentine printer "Johann Petri" had been all the time in Florence, was generated by the impressi of these 140 cooperative productions with Laurentius de Morgianis in the 1490's in Florence with the perspective, that Johann Petri was the humble eager printing workman in the background and Laurentius the chief of it. But the whole in context gives the impression, that Johann Petri around 1484, when Nicolaus Laurentii retired, was the logical heir of a lot of business connections created by Nicolaus, with enough personal experience about printing and also owner of a lot of material necessary for printing, also having a lot of capital in form of unsold editions.
In this situation he probably decided to hire some of his printing material to other printers in Florence and saw it as necessary to combine Italian and German market. He attempted to work in Passau, but finally decided for Basel as the better place - meanwhile he developed his Florence position to a cooperation with the printer Laurentius. He constantly worked on the basic of "cooperation" (Froben, Amerbach, Koberger, in Passau occasionally even with printers in Venice and Ferrara) as the better part of the business and became successful with it, similar worked Koberger.
Koberger's printing house died finally, Petri's survived and still lives today. A rather astonishing career. His master was, if my analysis didn't get wrong, nobody else than Donnus Nicolaus Germanus, already in the book production business around 1452, also observable to work with cooperation models already in 1452 (Crivelli).
********
Further researches:
This report ...
http://www.audacellus.de/Buch.htm
... confirms the identity between the Johann Petri in Passau with the Johann Petri in Basel.
This report ...
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/News+from ... 0147914322
... contradicts other information with "The fourth edition of the poem, in yet another redaction (of ninety-five stanzas), is set in the type of Johannes Petri; (67) one of the first printers to work in Florence, his office operated from early 1471 to 1473. Given the topical nature of the poem, it is tempting to assign the edition to Petri and to this early period of Florentine publishing. But Petri went out of business in 1473 and in May 1477 sold the matrices for his type to the Dominican nuns of the convent of San Jacopo di Ripoli." ...
"The Ripoli press is renowned for its Diario (account book), in which the procurator
Fra Domenico da Pistoia recorded his dealings with a colorful cast of local peddlers, charlatans, and canterini who hawked his printed pamphlets through the streets of Florence on consignment or commission."
In one of the printings is noted ... "Printed by Fra Domenico da Pistoia and Fra Piero da Pisa,
Florence, at the monastery of San Jacopo di Ripoli, 1477."
According this Johann Petri was NOT participating in the printings in Ripoli nunnery. (though in an Jstor article is noted "... nuns of the convent of St. Jacob of Ripoli. They worked under the technical guidance of the German printer, Johannes Petri, of Mayence.")
In this case I would think, that it seems likely, that he participated in the print shop of Nicolaus Laurentii till its end in 1485.
The database results of Laurentius Morgianis with Johann Petri 1498-1500 in the database are more or less suspect. It might well be, that they all are errors or only estimations, texts without clear date. A possible reason: They printed a lot of the Savonarola texts before and life had become difficult for Savonarolians already in 1497.
I couldn't detect the printer name "Laurentius Morgianis" in reference to years after 1500. So it might be suspected, that the printer activity of the both in Florence ended in 1497/98.
The Savonarola engagement possibly gave a reason for Johann Petri to leave his older past behind, now calling himself Johann Petri of Langenfeld instead of the earlier Johann Petri of Moguntia. And was working finally in Germany, far away from the dangerous pope Alexander VI.
My speculations are somehow contradicted by the silence from the ...
http://www.schwabe.ch/index.php?id=547
... history of the oldest publishing house Schwabe, which forgets to mention in its story of the origin of the firm the city Passau and also Florence, although they have published a big and expensive book ....
http://www.schwabe.ch/index.php?id=443& ... 4fd160d231
about their origin. They talk of a 1488 founding of the printing house, which more or less is in the database astonishingly passive in the first decade of its existence.
http://www.gesamtkatalogderwiegendrucke ... ultsize=50
Remarkable is the cooperative work of the printers Laurentius Morgianis and Johann Petri with Pietro Pacini ...
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pietro_Pacini
... who made various books with many illustrations