Ian Maclean is Professor of Renaissance Studies at the University of Oxford, and Senior Research Fellow of All Souls College. He has published extensively on intellectual life in Early Modern Europe, including studies on Montaigne, Cardano, and the higher faculties of law and medicine.

This collection of essays examines the operation of the market for learned books in Early Modern Europe through a series of case studies. After an overview of general market conditions, issues raised by the transmission of knowledge and the economics of the book trade are addressed. These include the selection of copy, the role of legal and religious controls in the production and diffusion of texts, the paths open to authors to achieve publication, the finances and interaction of publishing houses, the margins of the European book trade in England and Portugal, and the development of bibliographical tools to assist purchasers in their pursuit of scholarly works.