Antonio Bulifon

Antonio Bulifon (1649-1707) was a French printer working in Naples. As a publisher Bulifon was "fundamentally important for the diffusion of women's poetry" in Italy.[1]

Antonio Bulifon
picture of Aldus Manutius
A mermaid with two intertwining tails depicted on the printer's mark of Antonio Bulifon
Born
Antoine Bulifon

(1649-06-24)June 24, 1649
Chaponnay, Dauphiné
DiedJuly 1707(1707-07-00) (aged 58)
Spain
Occupation(s)Scholar, printer, publisher
Spouse
Maddalena Criscuolo
​
(m. 1673)​
Children3
Parent(s)Laurent Bulifon and Jeanne Bulifon (née Pros)

Life

Antonio Bulifon was born in Chaponay in Dauphiné in southeastern France, the son of Laurent Bulifon, a notary, and his wife Jeanne Pros. In 1668 he set out on travels across France, visiting shrines in Marseilles, Toulon and Aix, and continuing to Rome on hearing of the death of Pope Clement IX.[2] In 1670 he moved to Naples, where he established a printing firm. For his printer's device he chose a Siren, perhaps a symbol for his adopted city, and the motto “non sempre nuoce” (“she does not always harm”).[2] As a printer Bulifon specialized in travel books, histories of the city, and sixteenth-century lyric poetry.[3] He republished the fairy tales of Giambattista Basile.[2]

Bulifon's wealth of contacts, coupled with his virtual monopoly on the sale of foreign journals and books in Naples, transformed his bookshop into the primary conduit through which information and texts flowed freely in and out of the city. Not surprisingly, Bulifon's bottega became a gathering place for Neapolitan intellectuals including Giuseppe Artale, Francesco D'Andrea, Niccolò Toppi, Pompeo Sarnelli, Giovanni Vincenzo Gravina and Carlo Celano. The centrality of Bulifon's bookshop to Neapolitan intellectual life led foreign visitors from France, Germany, Switzerland, and England to his door. His shop became a mandatory stop for anyone traveling to Naples, as satisfied customers returned home and began to advertise his services. For example, after a trip to Naples in 1688, the author of Nouveau voyage d'Italie (1691), Maximilien Misson, described the printer as follows: “Mr. Bulifon, a bookseller, a native of France, but established for a long time in Naples, is not only clever in his trade, but knows an infinity of things, is the author of many good books and an exceedingly honorable man. He is extremely courteous to travelers and always ready to offer them his good offices”.[4]

Bulifon gave particularly noteworthy attention to women's work.[3] He republished the poetry of Vittoria Colonna in 1692 and 1693. Between 1692 and 1694 he also published the poems of Laura Terracina, Lucrezia Marinella, Veronica Gambara, Isabella Morra, Maria Selvaggia Borghini, Tullia d'Aragona, Laura Battiferri and Isabella Andreini, as well an anthology of fifty women poets.[5]

Around the start of the 18th century Bulifon turned his printing business over to his son Niccolo. When the Austrians invaded Naples in 1707, he fled to Spain and sought the protection of Philip V. His Naples bookshop was attacked and destroyed by a mob, and he died later that year.[2]

Works
Particular from the review of Bulifon's Ragionamento intorno d'un antico marmo discoverto nella città di Pozzuoli published on Acta Eruditorum, 1694

Works published by Bulifon
  • Lo cunto de li cunti by Giambattista Basile, ed. Pompeo Sarnelli. Naples, 1674.
  • Guida de forestieri: curiosi di vedere, e d'intendere le cose più notabili della regal cittá di Napoli, e del suo amenissimo distretto by Pompeo Sarnelli. Naples, 1683.
  • Rime di M. Vittoria Colonna d'Avalo. Naples, 1692.

References
  1. Giovanna Ravitti (2000). "Lyric poetry, 1500–1650". In Letizia Panizza; Sharon Wood (eds.). A History of Women's Writing in Italy. Cambridge University Press. p. 50. ISBN 978-0-521-57813-4.
  2. Suzanne Magnanini. "Postulated Routes from Naples to Paris: The Printer Antonio Bulifon and Giambattista Basile's Fairy Tales in Seventeenth-Century France". Marvels & Tales. 21 (1): 78–92.
  3. Rinaldina Russell (1997). "Bulifon, Antonio (1649-1707)". The Feminist Encyclopedia of Italian Literature. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 35. ISBN 978-0-313-29435-8.
  4. «M. Bulifon, libraire, françois de nation, mais établi depuis fort long-tems à Naples, est non seulement habile dans sa profession, mais conoissant une infinité de choses, auteur de plusieurs bons livres et fort honnête-homme. Il est extremêment civil aux voyageurs et toujours prêt à leur rendre ses bons offices.»
  5. Tatiana Crivelli (2016). "The Print Tradition of Vittoria Colonna's Rime". A Companion to Vittoria Colonna. Brill. p. 128.
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