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08871_Field_TCGG T636.txt
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1996-04-10
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who, when they wish to put on airs, become “publicists”.
It is his boast that throughout the world, “Fame is sold by
me.” He had to have publicity; it was his living; and he
certainly knew how to set about to get it. . . . Here, then,
we have a man who may be called, in point of chronology,
the first literary realist, the first journalist, the first
publicist, the first art critic. (66)
Like his exact contemporary Rabelais, Aretino sensed the
gigantism that is latent in the uniformity and repeatability of
the printed word. Aretino, from lowly origins and without
education, used the press as it has been used ever since.
Putnam writes (p. 37):
If Aretino, at this time, was probably the most powerful
man in Italy, perhaps in the world, the reason is to be