MUSEUM OF TYPOGRAPHY AND PRINTING

HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION

Exhibition – Educational laboratory of the press

The renowned Silvio Pellico Typography, which draws its origins from the Seminary Typography (founded by Cardinal Barbarigo in 1695 and which changed its name in 1898), in the belief that it was right to equip Montefiascone with a Didactic Museum of Printing ‘Municipal Administration the patrimony of machines, equipment and prints saved from the wear and tear of time.
Thus the “Permanent Exhibition and Didactic Laboratory of the Press” became a reality. It is not the first nor the richest among the various existing museums, but the possibility of letting the children who visit it “touch” the ancient processing techniques, to print before their eyes (the machines are still working manually) a white sheet that becomes the memory of their visit, constitutes an experience that significantly helps them to change their relationship with the book. A teaching that comes from so far and that “takes on new life” is for them a significant sign against the rampant lack of culture, a fruitful help for our children left at the mercy of messages of opposite sign.
A space, therefore, where it is still possible to learn the rudiments of the ancient art of printing, available to children and anyone interested. A real artisan laboratory where the operations of composition, printing and packaging of works carried out with the materials and according to the techniques that have remained unchanged for over half a millennium are carried out. Professionalism, techniques and materials that have been the subject of careful conservation before and then brought back to the foreground to return to offer the public and the book market products of the highest quality.
Visitors can thus not only see the collection of ancient wood and alloy characters but also witness the work of composing a text up to the closing of the “stamp”, “putting it in the machine” and then printing. They see all the complex phases unfolding before their eyes through which, using the ancient printing and bookbinding machines, a sheet of paper is transformed into a book. The next step is to illustrate and demonstrate the technological advances that have transformed the art of printing and typography over time.
Thus the passage from the first press to the pedal, to the plain becomes clear; from manual composition to linotype and finally to the cameras that allowed the transition to the offset printing system, finally to modern technology and then to the current typography with its most recent acquisitions up to digital printing.
Retracing the steps that brought the art of printing from Gutemberg’s intuitions to its current form, it is possible to realize how important it remains to know the fundamental techniques even for the best use of the most modern tools. This is the oldest but also the safest way to get to know and therefore appreciate such a particular product as the book. It is an attempt to stimulate children to approach and hopefully learn a craft that is both ancient and very modern, an art transformed by new techniques but which continues to depend on manual skills and talent.
The Exhibition – Didactic Laboratory located in the old premises of Via O. Borghesi, is organized on two floors which respectively present an old printing laboratory and therefore its transformation into the photographic and graphic departments of the first laboratory for offset printing. In this way it is possible to see the printing system which remained practically unchanged for five centuries and its evolution in what only sixty years ago replaced it and forms the basis of modern printing.
The duration of the visit is approximately two hours. Classes of students and visitors can take advantage of: FREE ENTRANCE, gift of the book “Guide to the Exhibition” and accompaniment guaranteed by the presence of a member of the Pro Montefiascone Association.

ESSENTIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY

M. Marroni e A. Marroni; Storia della Tipografia Silvio Pellico. Montefiascone, 2015.
Guida alla Mostra laboratorio Didattico della Stampa. Montefiascone 2016.