Ninety years after the first and only edition, Ronzani reproposes this small classic of typography in facsimile, which also allows us to visually appreciate the didactic vocation of the book.
In Come nasce un libro (How a book is born) (1931) Raffaello Bertieri recounts in a flat manner, with didactic precision and a wealth of examples, all the phases of book production, from the typesetting of the texts to the actual printing and binding, showing in detail how interdependent the various phases are, and how accuracy and precision are essential to the realisation of the work. After decades of profound changes, concerning not only technology, publishing and graphics, but also the whole cultural and social phenomena behind book production, these pages – an expression of Bertieri’s ‘functionalist’ approach to graphic design – maintain their interest intact, both as a first-rate document on the state of the book art in the 1920s and 1930s, and for the topicality of the lessons and considerations on the qualities a book must have in order to satisfy, first and foremost, the reader’s needs.
Ninety years after the first and only edition, Ronzani reproposes this small classic of typography in facsimile, which also allows us to visually appreciate the book’s didactic vocation.
—
Published by Ronzani Editore
256 pages
Paperback
Isbn 978-88-94911-60-2
