Bernardino Benali e la creazione della prima collana editoriale (1493-1494)

The first publishing series, of vernacular devotional texts aimed at a wide readership, appeared in Venice between 1493 and 1494. The nine quarto vol- umes each contain two identical woodcuts at the beginning and the end which evoke the contents of the books and also enable us to identify them as belong- ing to the same series. In this way the two woodcuts anticipate certain features of the dustjacket. The printer Bernardino Benali, who was active in Venice be- tween 1483 and 1543, devised the series, which drew its inspiration from a work by the preacher Marco da Montegallo on the Franciscan rosary.