Upcoming: Philobiblon at Milan's Salone della Cultura
On 20-21 November, Philobiblon will be participating at Milan’s 5th Salone della Cultura, to be held at the iconic Superstudio Più. The Salone della Cultura is a unique event that brings together multiple worlds of books—new, second-hand, and antique—in a bibliophilic extravaganza. Known as “Italy’s largest bookstore” with over 500,000 books on display, the two-day event also includes exhibitions, free workshops, lectures, and debates for a celebration of culture in the fullest sense of the word.
With its innovative approach and dazzling variety of books on display, there is something for everyone, from literature to poetry and artists’ books, to photography, prints, miniatures, pop-up, and children’s books, and from new and gently “pre-loved” bestsellers and specialized publications to fine rare antiques in exceptional copies. While authors, publishing companies, and second-hand booksellers will be representing the new and “newer” books, antique books will be represented by members of ALAI (Associazione Librai Antiquari d’Italia) and ILAB (International League of Antiquarian Booksellers).
Philobiblon will be exhibiting among them, and with a wonderful selection of books befitting the great scope of the event. Some highlighted titles include an unsophisticated copy, in its contemporary binding, of the exceedingly rare Perugian edition of Martino Buzio’s handbook on notary practice, Forma instrumentorum, composed around 1482. This particular edition, issued by the press run by Baldassarre Cartolari, attests to the University of Perugia’s importance as a European centre for legal studies and its illustrious tradition of notary practice, while the woodcuts it includes offer a remarkable example of networking among printers active in Venice, Perugia, and Rome.
From law to medicine, there will also be a rare first edition of Marco Aurelio Severino's De recondita abscessuum natura, published in Naples in 1632 by Ottavio Beltrano. A landmark in the history of surgery, Severino's work represents the first textbook of surgical pathology, the first book to include illustrations of lesions with the text and the earliest organized classification of tumors of the breast. Although the importance of this work stands on its own, the author’s close epistolary relationship with William Harvey is an additional point of interest in this special volume.
Another rare find that will be on offer is a volume containing Francesco Borromini's Opera and Opus Architectonicum. The results of a large publication project planned by the architect but left unfinished upon his death in 1667, the Opera and Opus Architectonicum were finally realized by Sebastiano Giannini in Rome in 1720 and 1725, respectively, and include important engravings, mostly made under Borromini’s direction, of two of the Baroque master’s greatest works, the S. Ivo della Sapienza and Oratorio di S. Filippo Neri, both in Rome.
Finally, literature and philosophical works bearing great provenance will also be on display, as with a copy of the Venetian edition of Augustine’s De civitate Dei – specifically, the 1551 Quintus Tomus Operum D. Aurelii Augustini Hipponensis Episcopi, continens xxii. libros De ciuitate Dei, housed in a beautiful morocco armorial binding executed for Pope Pius V, and Umberto Eco’s Il problema estetico in San Tommaso published in Turin in 1956 by Edizioni di Filosofia and presented here in a dedication copy to his fellow literary icon, intellectual and professor Folco Portinari.
There really is something for everyone, so if you are in the area the weekend of the 20th and 21st we invite you to stop by the Superstudio Più and take a look at these and many more marvelous treasures on offer at this wonderful festival of culture!
Salone della cultura
Saturday & Sunday, 20-21 November 2021
Superstudio Più, Via Tortona, 27 - 20144 Milan (MI)