Andrew Stiller wrote:
On Jan 30, 2006, at 6:26 AM, Owain Sutton wrote:
Petrucci was a shrewd (or very lucky) businessman. But, we do not
know who he sold books to, or even how many he sold.
Early printed music, right up through at least the 17th c., cost
more--much more--than an MS because it looked better and was likely to
have far fewer errors. Every edition, that is, was a deluxe edition.
If you've got information on Petrucci's retail prices, a lot of people
would be interested in knowing it! And it depends what you're comparing
Petrucci to - to scrappy copying such as in Trent, or showpieces such as
the manuscripts produced by Alamire? (THOSE were deluxe editions!)
Certainly there's no consistency in there being 'less errors' in
Petrucci than in contemporary manuscripts, he was only as good as his
sources, which appear to have varied widely.
Also worth remembering: The typical print run for one of George Sand's
novels was 400 copies.
Overnight, Petrucci started producing perhaps hundreds of copies of
collections of music, where before they were individually copied. He
cannot simply have taken over an existing market, but spotted the
potential to develop a new one, which he did with evident success.
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