Books in Italy

Italy is the home of two of the world's biggest publishers of books in terms of revenue: Messaggerie Italiane and Mondadori Libri.^[1] Other large publishers include De Agostini Editore, Feltrinelli and the RCS MediaGroup.^{[2][nb 1]}

History

See also: Global spread of the printing press § Italy

Early printing press on Italian soil were established by a German colony in Subiaco in 1464, when Arnold Pannartz and Konrad Sweynheim produced a Latin grammar by Donatus.^[4] Printing technology later developed in the 1460s in Rome and Venice, and in the 1470s in Bergamo, Bologna, Brescia, Cremona, Ferrara, Florence, Genoa, Lucca, Mantua, Messina, Milan, Modena, Naples, Padua, Palermo, Parma, Pavia, Perugia, Piacenza, Reggio Calabria, Treviso, Turin, Verona and Vicenza. By the 1480s printing facilities were also present in L'Aquila, Pisa, Reggio Emilia, Siena, and Udine.^[5][6]

At the time of Italian unification and the creation of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861, the Biblioteca Magliabechiana in Florence merged with the Biblioteca Palatina Lorenese [it], and by 1885 became known as the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze (National Central Library). The Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Roma was founded in 1876. As official legal deposit libraries, both maintain copies of all works published in Italy.^[7]

Notable publishers in Italy include Valentino Bompiani, Giovanni De Agostini, Giulio Einaudi, Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, Aldo Garzanti, Ulrico Hoepli, Leo Longanesi, Arnoldo Mondadori, Angelo Rizzoli and Albert Skira.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization named Turin the 2006 World Book Capital.

Bookselling

Notable bookstores in Italy include:

• Casella Studio Bibliografico (est. 1825), Naples
• Feltrinelli (est. 1954), chain retailer
• Libreria antiquaria Bourlot (est. 1848), Turin
• Libreria Antiquaria Pregliasco (est. 1912), Turin
• Libreria Internazionale Luxemburg (est. 1872), Turin ^[8]
• Libreria Babele (est. 1987), Milan
• Libreria Bozzi (est. 1810), Genoa
• Libreria Internazionale Hoepli (est. 1879), Milan
• Mondadori Mediastore (est. 1907), Milan
• Rizzoli (est. 1927), Milan

Fairs

• Bologna Children's Book Fair
• Turin International Book Fair

In popular culture

• The Name of the Rose (film), 1986

See also

• Category:Book publishing companies of Italy
• Collection (publishing)
• Publishing in Italy (in Italian)
• List of libraries in Italy
• Italian bibliophiles (fr)
• Italian literature
• Media of Italy
• Copyright law of Italy

Notes

1. Messaggerie and Mondadori also topped the list in 2016 and 2017.^[3][2]