It may happen that history trips the future. Or viceversa. A little more unusual that the unexpected becomes an object-rarity, a kind of pink Gronchi of events. The first version of number 30 of Domenica del Corriere dated 20 October 1946 belongs to this category. On the cover is Hermann Göring, Hitler’s right hand man, drawn with his head down while accompanying him to the gallows. The number is, to all intents and purposes, a ghost copy, since on October 15, the night before the hanging, Göring killed himself by ingesting a cyanide capsule, and therefore the newspaper never made it to newsstands.
The Liberation shreds the issue on Fascism
The same fate had struck, a year earlier, at issue 17 of the same weekly that was due to come out on April 29, 1945. In this case it was events that changed the course of history, that of the regime. The first page praising fascism became waste paper on April 25, the day of the Liberation of Milan. These are copies that no one thought existed anymore and instead have not only been found, but will soon even be on sale, available to collectors in the midst of thousands of editions of rare vintage books, in a showcase that for the first time will be online.
After forty years of “physical” fair, even the world of book antiques has had to give in to virtual mode: from 18 to 21 March, “Firsts Italia”, the market exhibition of ancient and rare books, organized for the first time in this way by the Association of Antiquarian Booksellers of Italy. “One way”, explains President Mario Giupponi, “not only to not miss a traditional appointment, but also to address a much wider audience”.
London was the first to successfully organize the Firsts London Rare Book Fair last September, assigning each bookseller a virtual stand. Now even the Italy of ancient books – one of the most important markets in the world – chooses to move the business to the Internet, and with prices ranging from 50 to 100 thousand euros it is aimed at a very wide audience. The participating booksellers will be 84, for the most part Italian. There are new entrants like Demetra from Milan and titans like Pregliasco from Turin, in addition to the English Quartich and Peter Harrington. Libraries specialized in 20th century literature and arts, contemporary art, manuscripts, incunabula and texts that date back to the prehistory of printing.
The first homosexual poem in print
Alongside the ghost specimens of Domenica del Corriere (which are part of a collection of 72 vintages, from 1899 to 1979, offered by the Malavasi bookshop on the site of ancient and rare books Maremagnum.com, price 17,900 euros), volumes-rarity of which exhibitors do not want to reveal too much “to keep a bit of mystery and a sense of anticipation”, as the president of the fair explains. Something, however, is known. The Orsini Arte Libri stand will drop its ace “with the first homosexual poem in print”, while the Coenobium Antiques bookshop will offer 21 titles including a rare eighteenth-century plaquette dedicated to the jihad of the tribes of the Caucasian-Chechen area, the work of a mysterious author in which a revolutionary reform of the Koran is also proposed. Alongside this gem to browse, what is defined as “a testimony of seventeenth-century proto-feminism”, the work of a Venetian nun, in which the author lashes out “against the prevailing misogyny and discrimination against women” in her century. Finally, the Novecento section will offer one of Bruno Munari’s lesser-seen works and «an important testimony of Man Ray’s influence in Italy in the early 1970s».
Theaters open for bibliophiles
Art, history and even a lot of customs. In the catalog of the Scriptorium bookshop, period volumes on national excellence: «A rare edition of the most famous and sought after Italian gastronomy treatises and a classic of botanical science illustrated for the first time. In addition, books on science, astrology, sixteenth-century and a powerful Napoleonic work ». The catalog of Studio Benacense is aimed at lovers of rare works printed between the 17th and the end of the 18th century with the common characteristic of being bound «with the fascinating painted or embossed paper of the time, in the typical Venetian tradition». The proposal of the antiquarian bookshop Ex libris is singular, which in times of closed theaters has chosen to plead the cause of the live show through the written page: “We only offer theatrical works: comedies, mostly pleasant and sometimes licentious, texts for musical compositions but also tragedies, by the most interesting Italian authors of the Renaissance and Baroque periods ».
Just a touch of the mouse
The “virtual book fair” will work like this: stands will be created under the roof of the firstsitalia.com site. Each bookseller will open his space with a short presentation and will exhibit a maximum of 21 texts accompanied by numerous photographs. Just a touch of the mouse and the visitor can virtually browse the book. Unfortunately the bibliophile will not be allowed to smell the work and for a true bibliophile, we know, it is a great privation, but you cannot have everything ». –