Quotes
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Alessandro Farnese : Holiness, I reviewed the treasury ledgers. Debt grows while assets decline. The church must secure new means of income. I began this process by dismissing the papal scribes, and installing a printing press under the supervision of renowned artisan Aldus Manutius of Venice.
[a general uproar among the Cardinals]
Alessandro Farnese : We are but a few years from the birth of a new century, and the Church must keep in step. We will do so with the printed word. A Holy Bible, made here in the Apostolic Palace.
Ascanio Sforza : The printed word is not to be trusted. Misprints are too rampant.
Alessandro Farnese : No, misprints can be corrected. And besides, many a near-sighted monk has made mistakes copying.
Ascanio Sforza : Only priests can interpret the Word of God. Yet with this machine, even the lowest peasant now has a Bible in his hut. Holiness. Holiness, my faith lies with the pen, not with the press.
Rodrigo Borgia : Our face... faith lies with Cardinal Farnese to correct our fiscal misfortune.
Ascanio Sforza : [laughs] Then let his Eminence prove the machine's worth.
Alessandro Farnese : In one month scribes produced one Bible. I will bind ten in two days.
[all laugh]
