"From Objects to Things" in the World of Aldus Manutius (1494-1515): Renaissance Publishing, and Institutional Dynamics in Markets

The case study, between historical institutionalism and sociology of translation, faces the evolution of the press and the emergence of publishing in Venice between 1490 and 1515: (i) around the appearance of "modern book" as a cultural artefact (as unit of analysis); (ii) considering the entrepreneurial experience of Aldus Manutius (as empirical context); (iii) observing and analysing the interweaving of different institutional logics (the cultural dynamics of Italian Humanism), the emergence of new institutional boundaries (around the revolution of movable type and the figure of "merchant-entrepreneur" in Venice), supported by forms of institutional work (the "modern book" by Aldus as an agent of market change). Adopting a market system dynamics perspective ("a market may be defined as an organizational field"), and introducing "the role of material objects in motivating and shaping institutional change", the framework proposes a nonhuman-centric approach to examine the roles objects play in market change processes.