Manuale Tipografico III - Enrico Tallone et al.

«The collection of the Manuali Tipografici printed by the Tallone Press is the most important historical-typographic endeavor since the second half of the twentieth century, the first in the world for quality, breadth, elegance and documentation» Michelle Delattes, CHARTA, 2019

Each volume of the set includes essays by researchers and scholars about different aspects of book design (types, formats, pagination, papers, inks). Texts alternate with tipped-in ancient specimens and paper samples from different epochs. Each paper sample (starting from the 15-16th century onwards) is held in a window mount, to allow viewing against the light.

A volume in the 4to format (cm 37x23) of 122 pages entirely typeset by hand in 12 point Tallone types, designed by Alberto Tallone,  hand-cut on punches by Charles Malin in Paris and cast by Radiguer in 1949.
Captions and footnotes are typeset by hand in Garamond type, cut by Henri Parmentier, and cast by Deberny & Peignot.

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PRINT RUN

358 copies have been printed, of which:

. 300 copies on off-white mould-made paper made of pure cotton in Sicily, without optical brighteners, made expressly for this edition, which contain a hundred and ten original specimens of papers, watermarks and inks.

. 38 copies on pure-cotton cream-color Magnani paper;

. 12 copies on Umbria paper handmade in Fabriano;

. 8 copies on ancient tinted-colored Fabriano paper.

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Listed as follows are the samples of papers, watermarks and inks included in every copy of the book (deluxe copies contain an higher number of original papers and watermarks, which date back to the 15th century):

– original samples of ancient European papers, representative of each century from the 16th to the 19th (deluxe copies include also a 15th-century sample), followed by 20th-century papers representative of each decade, from the 1930s to nowadays;

– some of the most prestigious European papers for deluxe editions made from the 1930s onwards;

– original watermarks of the most prestigious 20th-century European papers. The samples come from seven different decades, beginning from the 1930s, and are put in chronological order. The first watermark (1930s) is that of the Montval Mill, designed by Aristide Maillol for Count Kessler; it is followed by Italian (i.e. Fabriano, Amalfi and Pescia), English (Whatman), Dutch (i.e. Van Gelder Zonen and Pannekoek Mills), and French watermarks (i.e. Arches, Rives, Lana and Johannot Mills). Deluxe copies include original watermarks from the 18th and 19th century;

– as far as ancient watermarks are concerned, papermaker Luigi Mecella of the Paper Museum in Fabriano has expressely made by hand a sheet of pure-cotton paper which bears 14 of the very first Fabrianese watermarks of the 14th and 15th centuries;

– 19th and 20th-century Chinese and Japanese papers, such as Chine ancienne, Japon imperial and Hosho (their number grows within the deluxe copies);

– 72 original 20th-century typographic inks (black, blue and red inks), representative of each decade, from the 1930s to nowadays, printed on paper and inserted in custom made frames, starting from Noir Vignette TPH Intense and Nero Opere made in Milan by Renzo Cova, both of the 1930s, followed by other Italian and European ones up to nowadays, such as the German ones made by Huber, Kast & Ehinger, Gleitsmann and Jänecke & Schneemann. The first 24 black inks are printed on papers made in the same decade of each ink, as specified in the captions. Moreover, black inks for lithography, xilography, etching, opaque and glossy offset printing and phototypography are also included.

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Such a unique collection of precious specimens of papers, watermarks and inks has been possible due to the centuries-old history of our Printing house, whose origins date back to the late 18th century, making it the most well equipped and most ancient typographic studio in activity today. 

This unique journey through the aesthetics of papers, watermarks and inks is intended for those who, like us, always pursue clarity and elegance in designing books devoted to literature and poetry.

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The 14 inedited texts and the introduction are in Italian (one text only is in French):

Carlo Magnani, “Ricordanze di un cartaio”; Luigi Manias, “Il Tallone di carta”; Yves Bonnefoy, “Notre juge, notre complice”; Guido Ceronetti, “Alberi e carta”; Maria Gioia Tavoni, “Osservazioni sulla lapide bolognese del XIV secolo”; Angelo Tajani, “La filigrana, il primo marchio di fabbrica”; Franco Mariani, “La filigrana, silenziosa testimone del tempo”; Carlo Antinori, “Giambattista Bodoni e la carta”; Toshiharu Kano, “L’Oriente e la carta”; Oliviero Diliberto, “Il corpo dei libri”; Luigi Manias, “Il libro ecologico”, Andrea Kerbaker, “La legge di Murphy”; Mauro Chiabrando, “Nel nome della tinta”; Enrico Tallone, “I profumi del divino liquore”.

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