Renaissance, Religion and Risk

Self-published, (2025). small 4to illustrated paper-covered boards 69 pages ISBN: 9798992079203

The advent of printing accelerated the forces of the Renaissance and the Reformation, enabling ideas to spread quickly and widely. But printing also created a major new business problem: publishing risk. Most books could reach the marketplace only if a publisher bet large sums that they could be sold. This book probes the risks taken and how publishers managed them, illuminating the gateway between books and their readers.

Christophe Plantin's business records, still intact after 450 years, reveal the risk management techniques of Europe's largest printer. Mark McConnell reviews Plantin's strategy here, based on the Aubertus Miraeus Lecture he delivered on December 12, 2019, at the Museum Plantin-Moretus in Antwerp, Belgium.

Mark McConnell is Associate Research Fellow at the Virginia Fox Stern Center for the History of the Renaissance Book at Johns Hopkins University. He investigates the economics of publishing during the Renaissance, creating a database from the 16-Century archive of Christophe Plantin in Antwerp, Belgium. Mark comes to this task from a legal career handling international trade disputes as a partner at the global laaw firm Hogan Lovells. He litigated questions like the competitive dynamics of industries and the efficiency of industrial processes, issues that he is now examining in Plantin's operations. Mark holds both a law degree and a master's in business administration from Stanford University, and did his undergraduate work in economics at John Hopkins. He lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife Leslie.