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Cartolari, Girolama (1500-1559), Italian Printer. Provinciale Omnium Ecclesiarum Cathedralium Universi Orbis.
Rome: In Vico Peregrini [Apud Uxorem Balthasaris Cartularius, i.e. Girolama Cartolari], 1544.
Quarto, text printed in roman letter, large copy with contemporary manuscript marginalia intact; title page repaired at the foot with a neat pulp fill, other minor similar paper repairs on a few text leaves, a more substantial repair to final leaf with a few letters mutilated in the final line; bound in full modern brown morocco, 8 x 5 1/2 in.
Girolama Cartolari inherited her husband Baldassarre's printing business after his death in 1543. Originally established in Perugia, Girolama moved the press to Rome in 1543, and began printing from Vico Peregrini, identifying herself as the wife of Baldassarre. She set up shop near Campo dei Fiori and the palace of the Apostolic Chancery and found work, as exemplified here, producing short and long works for the Papal State, in addition to other material. She continued in business for sixteen years, printing approximately twenty-six titles each year. As documented by Deborah Parker in her essay, Women in the Book Trade in Italy, 1475-1620, (Renaissance Quarterly Nol. 49, No. 3, Autumn 1996, pages 509-541), the work of women printers and booksellers has gone unnoticed by scholars for decades. Women did inherit printing and bookselling businesses and often carried on the work after the deaths of their fathers and husbands. Girolamo eventually adopted the practice of using her own name in the imprint and in later books used a printer's device featuring a rampant unicorn.
This manual was a style guide for Catholic clergy responsible for composing documents and producing correspondence for the Pope in the Apostolic Chancery.
