Libri di larga circolazione e intermedialità. Qualche riflessione

This article examines books of wide circulation as a privileged field for analysing reading practices, cultural transmission, and media interaction in early modern Europe. Moving beyond the traditional opposition between learned and popular culture, it adopts the concept of “large-circulation books” to emphasise social breadth, material adaptability, and functional versatility. Particular attention is devoted to intermediality, understood as the dynamic interaction between print, orality, images, performance, and everyday objects. Through case studies ranging from chivalric literature and broadsides to almanacs and agenda-books, the essay highlights processes of reuse, adaptation, and appropriation rather than mere textual recycling. The analysis foregrounds readers’ practices and uses, showing how printed products acquired meaning through diverse modes of reception. Ultimately, the study argues that the history of popular print must integrate intermediality with the social history of reading and writing.