The project of ‘the database of the published books in the early modern era’ that Andrew Pettigrew presented could mean a contribution also to my work ‘The Left-wing terrorism in Italy and Germany in the 1970s.’ The German and Italian extra-parliamentary movements were influenced by each other, and it would be interesting to find out which books were translated from one language to another. Such a database would raise several questions. Which authors were translated? What was the number of circulation of those authors? In which cities were they published?
Professor Andrew Pettegree – Transnational History of Early Modern News
The influence of specific authors would thus be in a certain way quantifiable. This approach would also raise a number of issues. The number of the books circulating is in the 20th century immense and it would be difficult to put them all in the database. Therefore, the criteria would have to be set for cataloging the books. But in this way we would have to pre-define the books chosen for the database and thus limiting the contribution. The high mobility and the availability of the books would also make it difficult to find out how many people really read specific books.
Mikulas Pesta
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