Post by Italian Stories | from our book MANI

Our family printing house has been, for 70 years, in a palace of the 1500s in the historical center of Vicenza. I carry on the activity that my grandfather Ottorino founded in 1946, when he decided to start his own business after twenty years of experience in some of the most important printing houses of the Veneto region. There were no secrets in the art of the press that he did not know, and that he did not pass on to me. Chalcography and Lithography have always been my medium, and I only operate with artisanal printing systems that have remained unchanged over time, spending my days among presses, molds, inks and paper.

Over the years, very little in anything has changed in the shop: it is the passing generations of artists that shape the time and era, from the great masters of the 1900s to contemporary illustrators. Today I can say that within these walls, we don’t produce a simple graphic product. Every time, every new encounter creates a special alchemy, a relationship of perfect understanding between printer and artist, which is what makes the Printing House so unique.

Today we allow anyone to enter and immerse himself within these walls, and experience that feeling that you get when you pick up a ‘simple’ piece of paper from the press, knowing that – according to the technique that was chosen − it will be a lithograph, an engraving or a woodcut.

I like to call myself a wandering printer, for although the connection to these walls is very strong, I am also curious to Travel and discover new cultures, new faces and new stories. To be able to do this through my job, I believe, is even more beautiful.

I promised myself that I would accept any request that allowed me to disclose my passion and better broadcast my profession as ‘artistic printer’, a craft that is beautiful and fascinating but that is often not fully understood. This happens perhaps because it is a profession and an art that you cannot learn in school, one that you do not receive a diploma for. It is one that you must ‘steal’ with your eyes, observing in silence as artists and printers work, immersed in the scent of ink and paper.