Abstract

This paper analyzes four different ways of working by Fifteenth- and Sixteenth-Century authors in face of the birth of printing. This overview registers authors’s ability, interest and willingness to follow the journey of their work under the press. Chronological terms for this research stir from the 1470s to the 1530s, following the availability of critical studies and peculiar documentation. The works examined are: Marsilio Ficino’s De Christiana religione (1476, 1484), Niccolò Machiavelli’s Arte della guerra (1521), Baldassarre Castiglione’s Libro del Cortegiano (1528), Ludovico Ariosto’s Orlando furioso (1532).