Tright here was no love misplaced between rival Neapolitan authors and publishers Domenico Antonio Parrino (1642-c.1716) and Antonio Bulifon (1649-1707). Their rivalry had many sides: firstly, they competed for the privilege of publishing the native Gazzette, the one newspaper in Naples sanctioned by the Spanish authorities, which since 1684 had been in Parrino’s fingers. With the Gazzette got here additionally the unique on almanacs and calendars and the financial benefit of with the ability to promote different upcoming publications. However greater than the financial benefits, holding the privilege for the Gazzette meant standing and political affect. The pair had been additionally in competitors for the publication and distribution of the newly established style of the journey information; they usually went head-to-head in attempting to be the primary to publish a historical past of town of Naples protecting their very own time, throughout which it was beneath Spanish rule. The business success of different histories of town demonstrated public curiosity within the topic, and each publishers had been decided to be the primary to capitalise on it.
Throughout the course of their lifelong rivalry, Bulifon typically referred to Parrino as a ‘letterato pezzentone’ (poor letterman) and ‘editore di dodicesimi’ (writer of books in 12°) – a reference to his tendency to publish books in a smaller format, implying that they had been low cost and of lesser high quality. Parrino, for his half, was most likely the one to provide you with the nickname Buffone (idiot) for Bulifon, a play on his identify.
The race between the 2 started in 1688. Antonio Bulifon had been engaged on his historical past, Cronicamerone, for fairly a while, and had been hinting about its upcoming publication in letters and prefaces to different works. Parrino, intent on sabotage, wrote to the Spanish viceroy accountable for town on 26 January 1688 asking for an unique privilege on a up to date historical past of Naples, citing the exhausting work and substantial monetary funding that he had already made in his personal upcoming publication. This was granted, although the e book was not but prepared for publication. Much more unusually, whereas privileges had been sometimes granted to guard the textual content of a e book, Parrino’s coated its material – that’s, a historical past of the Spanish Vicerealm of Naples, which started in 1504.
In 1690 Bulifon printed the primary quantity of his Cronicamerone, protecting the historical past of Naples from the beginning of Jesus to the dying of Carlo I Angiò (1285), and Parrino promptly appealed – first on 13 March after which once more on 26 June. When the case was dropped at courtroom in August, regardless of the weird nature of the privilege, the ruling was made in favour of Parrino. Nobody was allowed to jot down on the identical topic as him and, furthermore, Bulifon was explicitly forbidden from persevering with his work to completion:
Antonio Bulifon needs to be allowed to print his E-book entitled Giornale Historico delle cose memorabili del Regno di Napoli till the time when the E-book of Dominici Antonio Parrino, entitled Teatro Eroico, e Politico de’ Governni de’ Sig. Vicerè di questo Regno, begins alone, that’s, till the start of the Dominion and Authorities of King Ferdinand, often known as the Catholic and never in any other case.
It was a tough blow. Bulifon may have continued to publish volumes of the Cronicamerone up till the date specified by the privilege, however relatively than having what he perceived to be his magnum opus directed and influenced by the need of his bitter rival, he determined to depart it at solely the primary quantity.
Parrino, completely satisfied in his victory, continued gathering funds and eventually printed the primary quantity of the Teatro Eroico in 1692, and two additional volumes within the following years. And to keep away from any danger of extra competitors, or perhaps simply to additional rile Bulifon, he included a duplicate of the 1688 privilege within the first quantity.
Parrino was in a position to safe his victory due to the relationships he had solid with key authorities officers, notably these bureaucrats liable for granting privileges, that he constructed over a few years whereas he and his enterprise associate Camillo Cavallo had held the privilege to print and publish the Gazzette; each authorities workplace was entitled to a free copy.
Thus it isn’t stunning that when the political local weather shifted, Parrino and Bulifon’s positions drastically modified. The Spanish Conflict of Succession enormously impacted the Neapolitan vicerealm and noticed the 2 businessmen on reverse sides: Parrino maintained his loyalty to the Habsburg household and lent his assist to the archduke Charles VI, whereas Bulifon, a Frenchman, aligned himself to the Bourbon Philip V, presumably attributable to a way of loyalty to his nation of origin.
Bulifon’s gamble was rewarded when Philip V was topped king of Spain in 1700. Parrino misplaced his privilege for the Gazzette, regardless of his contract nonetheless being in act, and it was given to Bulifon. Not solely that, however Bulifon paid only a fraction of what his rival was charged. When Parrino and Cavallo had their privilege renewed in 1693, which was purported to final ten years, it had price them 810 ducats per yr, however when it was transferred to Bulifon in 1700 he was solely charged 300 ducats.
Victory was bittersweet, nonetheless. Bulifon proved unpopular and his version of the Gazzette was closely criticised for its extreme servility and partiality in direction of the present Bourbon rulers, to the purpose that, based on an nameless manuscript chronicle of the time, a number of rhymes towards him had been printed and unfold all through town. The rhymes referred to as him a ‘buffone’ and criticised anybody who could possibly be so silly as to imagine the French:
Of all of the tales that Buffone prints
each information is a narrative
each phrase a fiction and never a truth
… those that imagine the French are silly
they’re at all times false
and everybody is aware of it.
Even supposing each Parrino and Bulifon managed, at totally different cut-off dates, to win a battle towards the opposite, the battle was in the end gained by Parrino. Bulifon retired, leaving his printing press to his son Nicola, and when Austrian forces entered Naples in 1707 the privilege for the Gazzette was restored to Parrino. Chronicles of the time recorded that Parrino then incited a mob to march towards Nicola Bulifon’s store and torch it.
Thus, on the smouldering ashes of what as soon as was one of the crucial famend and prolific publishing homes in Naples, Parrino achieved full and complete victory over his life-long rival.
Laura Incollingo is postdoctoral analysis assistant on the ‘Speaking the Legislation in Europe, 1500-1750’ mission on the College of St Andrews.
