Proofreading in the past: a case of publishing in 19th century Italy

Abstract

At the beginning of the 1880s, the Donato Albanzani's (14th century) vernacular translation of the collection of biographies De mulieribus claris (Famous women), written in Latin by Giovanni Boccaccio (14th century), was published in Italy. Giacomo Manzoni, a bibliographer and book collector, edited the text of this translation, which came out under the title Delle donne famose. Between 1875 and 1882 there was an intense exchange of letters between Manzoni and the publisher Gaetano Romagnoli, who managed the production of the book with the Fava e Garagnani printing house, both in Bologna. This article is dedicated to analyzing this correspondence according to what it reveals about the professional roles of those involved in editing, the concepts of proofreading and the mistakes made by the players. The end of the text proposes reflections about the editorial practices of yesterday and today, with an emphasis on the proofreading stage.