Art and the Printing Press - Ex libris and Divina Commedia
"La Divina Commedia nell'ex libris" is the title of the exhibition now open (until 27th april)
in the Print Museum of Soncino (CR), historic location of the 1400s jewish printing workshop of the "Soncino"
and host to the Art Gallery Soncino, which in its spaces holds works of well known contemporary
engravers.
Grand Opening was at 10.00 a.m.
In the first photo there are, from left to right: Major of Soncino, Luigi Pisati; dr. Mauro Mainardi (AIE president -
Associazione Italiana Ex libris) and prof. Angelo Rescaglio, ADAFA president.
This "Divina Commedia" section takes a special significance: during the year 2002, a "Lectio Dantis"
(reading Dante) was promoted in Cremona and elsewhere, to create interest around the "divine poem", source of
interest due to the richness of its message.
According to Mauro Mainardi, AIE president, the first illustrations dedicated to "Divina Commedia"
can be dated back to the 1400s with the birth of printmaking. Amongst the most precious illustrations
of the poem written by Dante we can mention the one published in 1481 with a comment by Cristoforo
Landino and engravings by Baccio Baldini, probably made after drawings by Sandro Botticelli
Ex libris on the theme of "Divina Commedia" are not, like those by Landino, graphic works
intended to illustrate the poem, but were applied on books to identify the books' owner. The collector
of ex libris referring to Dante's poem, whether bibliophile or collector of editions of the divine poem,
either past or contemporary, can use part of the original edition of his ex libris for the most important
volumes in his collection and can use the remainig originals to exchange with other collectors.
In Soncino, there are 110 ex libris on the theme of Dante on display, made by artists such as
an example: Alberto Martini, Ruslan Agirba, Robert Baramov, Fabrizio Bombino, Natalija Cernetsova,
Luca Crippa, Bruno Gozzo, Anatoli Kalaschnikov, Stefano Patrone, Vincenzo Piazza, Virgilio
Tramontin, Remo Wolf and many others.
In the second photo, again from left to right, there are: Nicola Ottria, Francesco Franco, Lea
Gyarmati, Vladimiro Elvieri (curator of the exhibitions).
The catalogue of the exhibition reproduces 30 of these ex libris, with a comment by Mauro Mainardi.
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Artifex wishes to thank Mr. Vladimiro Elvieri for his help;
photos are © and are courtesy of the organization.
© Artifex 2003 - All rights reserved.