The contemporary commentator who wrote that, by the early sixteenth century, Venice was a city “so full of books that it was hardly possible to walk down a street without armfuls thrust upon you, like cats in a bag, for two or three coppers each” unwittingly provided an evocative opening to any description of the culture of Venetian print.i As well as concern for the increasing vulgarization of intellectual life, his words underline the sheer quantity of printed material available for purchase in one of the most important centers for the production and sale of books in the Renaissance. As the city made the transfer from a manuscript culture enjoyed by the very few, to a culture of printing accessible to many, the voices of outspoken critics like Filippo de Strata gradually quieted.ii