Die arabischen Evangelien der Typographia Medicea

The Medici Oriental Press (1584–1614) occupied a special position among Roman workshops—supported by Pope Gregory XIII and financed by Ferdinando de’Medici, it produced books in Arabic and Chaldean that were supposed to satisfy both scholarly and missionary requirements. This study assesses the extensive accounting documents that have been preserved with respect to the question of how the Medici Oriental Press positioned itself in the network of European printing houses and the international book market. Based on the example of the Gospels in Arabic and Arabic-Latin, it provides insights into the operation and costs of the process of producing books, and into practices for negotiating with the pontifical censorship authorities, book agents, and diplomats.