Stamperia di Alberto Tallone

Stamperia di Alberto Tallone, also known as Alberto Tallone Editore, is an Italian private press and publishing house founded in Paris in 1938 by Alberto Tallone. It is celebrated for books that are entirely hand-composed from lead type cast from original matrices, printed in limited editions typically of around 300 copies on pure cotton and specialty papers, and bound by hand. The press operates from an atelier in Alpignano, Piedmont, which it moved into in 1960 and which is described as the oldest continuously operating typographic workshop in Europe. Its catalogue spans roughly 300 titles, including world-premiere publications of works by Paul Valéry, Pablo Neruda, Miguel Ángel Asturias, Eugenio Montale, Alda Merini and others. The house remains a family enterprise, now in its eleventh generation of printing work, and combines a working letterpress atelier with a typographic archive and museum space devoted to the history of type and twentieth-century design.

Alberto Tallone founded the publishing house that bears his name in Paris in 1938. From its foundation until 1958, the press was based on the ground floor of the Hôtel de Sagonne at 28 rue de Tournelles in Paris, a building designed by Jules Hardouin Mansart, Count of Sagonne, for his personal use. The publishing mark of the house carries the coat of arms of the Counts of Sagonne with the inscription "Les presses de l'Hôtel de Sagonne", although the title pages of its books rarely include the mark. In 1958 Alberto Tallone returned to Italy. On 15 October 1960 the new printing works in Alpignano, built by the Turin architect Amedeo Albertini, was inaugurated in the presence of Luigi Einaudi. The atelier itself had been in Dijon since the 1920s before being moved to Paris and finally, in 1960, to Alpignano, where Alberto Tallone owned a family property and chose to settle so his children could grow up in an Italian atmosphere. The atelier has remained unchanged since the eighteenth century, gradually enriched with materials including important collections of movable type. Inside the workshop, books are composed by hand following the printing technique invented by Johannes Gutenberg, using the same original case type of the period, cast from lead matrices and engraved by the designers who drew them. The workshop houses a Phoenix 5 printing machine, with which the first edition of James Joyce's Ulysses was printed in 1922 when the atelier was still in Dijon, as well as a hand press and an Original Heidelberg Cylinder. A binding area is dedicated to binding and sewing the printed and composed books on handmade Italian papers, especially pure cotton papers from Tuscany, Sicily and Cartiere Milano Fabriano. A massicot guillotine, transferred to Alpignano from the Paris premises for the inauguration of the Italian atelier, is used for cutting. Pablo Neruda entrusted the publisher with the publication of some of his unpublished works. In 1963 Alberto Tallone published a collection of 20 poems entitled Sumario – Libro donde nace la lluvia and, in the same year, the Italian version Sommario – Libro dove nasce la pioggia, edited by Giuseppe Bellini. Even after Alberto Tallone's death, Neruda continued to collaborate with the Alpignano house. To commemorate his friend the publisher, he wrote the poem Adiós a Tallone, included in his collection Copa de sangre, which the widow Bianca Tallone published in 1969. This was followed in 1972 by the Discurso de Stockholm, which Neruda delivered when he received the Nobel Prize. After the Chilean poet's death in 1973, his widow Matilde Urrutia sent Bianca Tallone a collection of her husband's unpublished poems entitled 2000. The publisher was unable to issue this work at the time, bringing it out only in 2004. Since its founding, Alberto Tallone Editore has published about 300 titles, including world-premiere works by Paul Valéry, Pablo Neruda, Miguel Ángel Asturias, Francesco Messina, Guido Ceronetti, Elémire Zolla, Eugenio Montale and Alda Merini. The house has the distinction of possessing the oldest typographic atelier in Europe still in operation. It remains a family enterprise and has remained so for eleven generations; in 2023 six people worked in the atelier. Attached to the atelier is the typographic archive, a museum space dedicated to the history of the typefaces that shaped twentieth-century advertising and design.

• 2023

  Six people work in the atelier, which remains a family enterprise in its eleventh generation.

• 2004

  Publication of Neruda's posthumous collection 2000.

• 1972

  Publication of Neruda's Discurso de Stockholm.

• 1969

  Bianca Tallone publishes Neruda's Copa de sangre, containing the poem Adiós a Tallone.

• 1963

  Publication of Pablo Neruda's Sumario – Libro donde nace la lluvia and its Italian version Sommario – Libro dove nasce la pioggia.

• 1960

  The new printing works in Alpignano, built by architect Amedeo Albertini, is inaugurated on 15 October in the presence of Luigi Einaudi.

• 1958

  Alberto Tallone returns to Italy.

• 1949

  Alberto Tallone designs the Tallone typeface, used exclusively by the publishing house.

• 1938

  Alberto Tallone founds the publishing house in Paris.

• 1938

  The press is based at the Hôtel de Sagonne, 28 rue de Tournelles, Paris, until 1958.

A heritage fine-press publisher and printer positioned at the intersection of craftsmanship, typographic tradition and literary prestige, serving collectors, libraries and bibliophiles.

• 1963

  Sumario – Libro donde nace la lluvia

• 1963

  Sommario – Libro dove nasce la pioggia

• 1969

  Copa de sangre

• 1972

  Discurso de Stockholm

• 2004

  2000

1. 1Stamperia di Alberto Tallone – Wikidatawikidata.org
2. 2Alberto Tallone Editore – Wikipedia (Italian)it.wikipedia.org