28 / 36
76
Kisch
⦁
Casting the Bigger Shadow
While he was alive, Petrucci dominated the music publishing market in
Venice for the simple reason that he held a legal monopoly. Petrucci
obtained this monopoly, known as a “privilege,” in two ways. First,
Petrucci applied to the Venetian Signoria for a privilege in 1498 by
presenting it as a patent. He claimed to have discovered a convenient way
to print polyphony, although other printers of the time were completely
capable of setting type for two impressions and registering them
accurately.
32
As mentioned before, it would be a mistake to claim that
Petrucci truly “invented” a new method of printing when his true skill
lay in the expert application of old methods. Nonetheless, Petrucci
apparently presented a convincing case, with no small amount of flattery
towards the city of Venice, and he was granted his privilege.
Petrucci’s patronizing approach was not unusual. Standard practice of
the time was to praise the city to which one was applying and to mention
the strengths of the city while making a case for one’s own loyal
citizenship. Petrucci abided by this convention and followed it with a
piece of deliberate campaigning for granting his privilege: he argued that
his method would benefit the Christian religion significantly by making
chant much easier to print. Boorman finds this claim to be a bit
ingenuous, since “there had been over fifteen years of successful
liturgical music printing in Venice, and Petrucci’s method was
comparable with that employed by the printers [already] involved.”
33
Boorman suggests that since Petrucci could not point to any direct
benefits related to the Venetian state or economy, he felt it necessary to
produce some other form of advantage. Petrucci’s argument for the
benefit to Christianity directly appealed to the moral sense of the city’s
rulers. Just this kind of marketing is sprinkled throughout most of the
periods and facets of Petrucci’s career, from his privilege, to his
technology, to his musical content.
Lest it be concluded that Petrucci was merely at the head of a money-
making scheme, enabled to sit on his laurels for the next twenty years, it
must be noted that his privilege was not necessarily respected by other
printers. Certain publishers sometimes needed to petition in order to
prevent other publishers from printing texts they should not.
34
It is likely
that Petrucci had to compete with many minor names in publishing.
32
Boorman,
Ottaviano Petrucci: Catalogue Raisonne
, 77–79.
33
Ibid., 77.
34
Ibid., 84.