The volume Alfabeti Modernisti Italiani collects over one hundred specimens of metal and wood movable type produced in Italy between the 1920s and 1940s, systematically organized into categories and subcategories: functional, cyclopean, triennial, synthetic, modulated, decorative, and modular. The book provides historical context, offering a clear mapping of the typefaces produced in Italy during this period.
Luca Lattuga’s research, realized in this volume, is an essential tool for exploring a little-studied phenomenon, shedding new light on a coherent and recurring style largely overlooked by traditional typographic historiography, emerging from small workshops and foundries, the so-called “basso.”
The significance of Lattuga’s work extends to contemporary practice: the digital foundry CAST has reinterpreted twenty-five of these typefaces, now available as digital fonts in the Alfabeti Modernisti Type Specimens collection, published by Lazy Dog alongside the volume, as explained in the introduction by Riccardo Olocco. In this way, Alfabeti Modernisti Italiani is not only studied historically but continues to influence contemporary typographic design, demonstrating the vitality and coherence of a cultural and aesthetic heritage often forgotten.
