Philip Sidney's Book-Buying at Venice and Padua, Giovanni Varisco's Venetian editions of Jacopo Sannazaro's Arcadia (1571 and 1578) and Edmund Spenser's The Shepheardes Calender (1579)

This essay traces Philip Sidney’s involvements with the book trade at Venice and Padua during his residence there from November 1573 until August 1574. It examines his interest in the publications of the renowned Aldine Press and other Venetian imprints mentioned in a letter of 19 December 1573 to Hubert Languet. It is intriguing to note that several of these Venetian publications (but not necessarily the same copies) were included in a catalogue, compiled between 1652 and 1665, of the Sidney family library at Penshurst. This essay specifically examines the 1571 and 1578 Venetian editions of Jacopo Sannazaro’s Arcadia, edited by Francesco Sansovino and published at Venice by Giovanni Varisco. This text played a significant role in providing inspiration for both Sidney’s own Arcadia and for the use of woodcuts in Edmund Spenser’s The Shepheardes Calender. The essay proposes that either Sidney himself (if he purchased a copy at Venice), or his companions at Venice Lodowick and Sebastian Bryskett (Bruschetto), or Gabriel Harvey, or another member of the Earl of Leicester’s circle of Italian scholars may have provided Spenser with access to a copy of this Varisco edition.