Italy’s publishing world returns to Stazione Leopolda for Testo from February 28 to March 2, promising top talks, workshops and stands. We take a look at some of Florence’s most creative chartaceous producers in attendance at the fair.
Established in Florence in 1980, Angelo Pontecorboli Editore (named after one of the founders) focuses on publications of high scientific content in the fields of architecture, anthropology, gardens, history of science, medicine and human sciences, as well as publications on Florence and Tuscany. Working with respected study centres, universities and foundations, the output is both print and digital.
Florentine publisher Le Lettere dates to 1976 and vaunts a panoply of authors: Oreste Macrì, Cesare Luporini, Ernesto Sestan, Carlo Ludovico Ragghianti, Amelia Rosselli, Cesare Zavattini and Valerio Magrelli. A love of translation distinguishes the oeuvre. In fact, The Florentine’s former literary magazine The FLR, edited by Alessandro Raveggi, is now published by Le Lettere in its new guise: The Florence Review.
Oltrarno-based Centro Di (Centro di Documentazione Internazionale sulle Arti – International Centre for Documentation on the Arts) was founded in 1968 by Ferruccio and Alessandra Marchi with the dual intention of producing publications on the visual arts and distributing them in Italy and internationally. In the 1970s and ‘80s, the publishing house and bookshop were famous for their innovative catalogues and art books. Now managed by Ginevra Marchi, Centro Di continues to print exhibition and museum catalogues, monographs and journals in the field of art history, architecture, archaeology, the decorative arts and restoration. Readers of The Florentine are likely to enjoy Centro Di’s series Our Hillside. Women Expatriates and their Villas and Gardens in the Hills of Florence 1890-1950.
Sixty imprints, 760 books and 750 authors make up Franco Cesati Editore, which has been publishing the best Italian and international research about linguistics, philology and literature for over 40 years. Working with leading academic associations such as Milan’s Istituto Petrarca and Florence’s Accademia della Crusca, the Florentine publisher has received the Italian Government’s Culture Prize.
Tommaso Gurrieri and Franziska Peltenburg-Brechneff started Edizioni Clichy in Florence in 2012. Distinctive in style, the proudly independent publishing house has a penchant for all things French, including the imprint names, which recall Parisian landmarks. Ranging from contemporary French literature to Anglo-American and Italian fiction, the classics, illustrated children’s books and non-fiction, the highest quality and utmost beauty are the common denominators. During ten-plus years of business, Edizioni Clichy has won the Italian Prize for Translation from the Ministry of Culture, the Hans Christian Andersen Prize and Malerba Prize.
This is not the first time we’ve spoken about Forma Edizioni. A spinoff of world-renowned architecture firm Archea, the books are often masterpieces in their own right. Traditional print, e-books and digital formats are all a possibility. Recent favourites include Florentine photographer Massimo Listri’s look at the Palazzo Vecchio, a digest of founder Marco Casamonti’s architectural achievements and a collective publication about Arte Povera.
The powerhouse of Tuscan publishing, it’s impossible to sum up Giunti in a few words. Headquartered in verdant via Bolognese, Italy’s second biggest publishing company began as a printer and bookstore in 1841. Currently birthing more than 1,000 new titles every year, more than 260 bookshops and over 150 agents, Giunti continues to be savvy and courageous in its choices. Just consider its decision to take on the management of the Odeon cinema in piazza Strozzi.
Situated in via degli Artisti in the Campo di Marte neighbourhood, Giuntina is the only European publishing house specializing in Jewish culture since its founding by Leo S. Olschki in 1909. The catalogue boasts more than 900 titles and works with the Italian Jewish Studies Association, the Italian Judaism and Shoah Museum in Ferrara, the Union of Italian Jewish Communities, the Jewish Museum in Bologna and the Shoah Museum Foundation in Rome.
Società Editrice Fiorentina began producing books about the history of Italy and Tuscany in the first half of the 19th century, stopping in 1930 before resuming in 2001 when Studio Editoriale Fiorentino, founded in 1997 by a group of friends, dusted down the name while retaining the original acronym. Expect non-fiction, poetry and prose.
Children’s publisher Librì Progetti Educativi, located near Ponte alla Carraia, is the brainchild of Maria Cristina Zannoner. Set up in 1993, it has since become a market leader in contemporary educational initiatives for schools, while continuing to publish books for kids of all ages.
Lorenzo de’ Medici Press is the publishing house of the international college programme of the same name. Headed up by Fabrizio Guarducci, the catalogue ranges between philosophy, religion, history, literature, cinema and photography, plus much more.
Managed since 2024 by two 30-something publishers, Maschietto Editore combines tradition and innovation, treating the book, in its many material and digital forms, as both a design object and a compass for understanding a complex world. Founded in 1994, Maschietto Editore boasts a catalogue just shy of 350 titles ranging from early reader books to illustrated books, essays to comics and fanzines, and even coffee-table books and artist books, including publications in foreign languages.
Situated in the countryside south of Florence, Olschki Editore is one of the leading resources for Italian scholarship in the humanities on the international market vaunting 5,000 books and 28 scientific journals over nearly 140 years of business.
Created by Stefano Passigli in Florence in 1981, Passigli Editori has more than 1,500 titles to its credit, including texts written by 19th-, 20th-century and contemporary authors as well as little-known works by great authors such as Marcel Proust, James Joyce and Virginia Woolf. Coming soon: the Strumenti Passigli imprint, providing the essential reading underpinning leading cultural debates, such as J’accuse by Émile Zola.
And in Tuscany…
Founded in Sansepolcro, Aboca Edizioni raises awareness about the environment and science in line with the parent healthcare company values. Alongside non-fiction and assorted publications, Aboca also prints a fiction series called Il Bosco degli Scrittori (The Writers’ Wood), consisting of novels and short stories that have allowed some of the most interesting authors on the literary scene to describe the world starting with the tree. There’s also Aboca Kids, an imprint for the next generation that is reliable and rejects oversimplification. Research conducted at the Bibliotheca Antiqua at the company’s fascinating museum in Sansepolcro results in the reproductions of ancient medical and scientific manuscripts as well as Renaissance prints.
Based in Massa, Industria&Letteratura was established in 2015 by a group of friends that wanted to publish their research into partisan resistance. After a pause in publication, the small company now caters to those who view literature in its daily relationship with worldly items.
A young addition to Pisa’s long-standing publishing industry, Carolina Paolicchi, Francesca Mannocci and Anita Paolicchi set up Astarte Edizioni in 2019 to give a voice to the many peoples and cultures surrounding the Mediterranean Sea and rediscover a shared identity. Expect deeply reasoned books, fresh cover designs and nifty merch.
Another new entry, Metilene Edizioni was established in Pistoia in 2021 as an extension of a communications company with years of experience working with museums and exhibitions.
Pacini Editore was founded in 1872 in piazza dei Cavalieri in Pisa. Passed down through generations, the mission continues promoting culture and ideas, creating quality volumes from a scientific and design perspective. Think art, history, architecture, linguistics, philology, anthropology, the environment and urban regeneration, law and medicine, as well as essays by local experts such as Franco Cardini and Cristina Acidini.
Siena-based Seipersei publishes exquisitely designed books centred on art, music and photography. The business came into being after founder Stefano Vigni self-published his first photographic book, 20000km, back in 2011. Since then, the boutique operation has worked with the likes of Daniel Charles, Joan La Barbara and Geoff Dyer, as well as branching out into graphic novels and travel writing.
