La disperazione della ragione. La tragica vicenda umana di Carla Caterina Patina, pioniera del libro d'arte illustrato

Carla Caterina Patina’s book Tabellae selectae ac explicatae, (published simultaneously in Italian as Pitture scelte e illustrate) has often been studied either in the context of the history of the production and diffusion of Venetian painting, or in terms of gender studies – or of both. The present essay aims to explore it from different viewpoints, mostly in relation to Seicento cultural and political history, as well as in the context of Patina’s biography and of bibliological studies. Thus, a more nuanced appreciation of her text, of her innovative editorial enterprise (often overlooked in current histories on the emergence of illustrated art books) and of her cultural background become possible. In particular, a close comparison of her Italian and Latin texts show some significant differences, whose political reasons are presented here. Furthermore, a more comprehensive assessment of the book’s impact on contemporary and later European culture is provided by a survey on its diffusion in eighteenth-century European libraries, belying the general assumption that the publication of the book was a failure. It may have been an economic blunder, but it did have some cultural impact, despite the poor quality of most, if not all the prints it contained. Finally, the reasons behind the choice of such inept engravers is addressed, in terms not so much of financial constraints, but of the network of Protestant / libertine French / German emigrées in the Venetian territory to which she and her family also belonged.