The History of Bocca Bookshop.
Bocca’s - founded by the brothers Giuseppe and Secondo
Bocca - was born in Turin in 1775 as a typographic and book firm. Today Bocca’s
is one of the most ancient bookshops still operating. Originally the activities
of the company were centralised. Now they are divided into three autonomous,
but at the same time deeply linked branches: Bocca’s bookshop, Bocca publishing
house and the newspaper Arte Incontro in Libreria. In the past it had five head
offices: Paris, Florence, Rome, Turin and the only surviving store now, Milan.
For a longtime the story of the company has
been following that of Italy closely, the Bocca family being in Savoia’s
service. Our national culture has a great debt to this historical publishing
house. In fact it edited outstanding works by great authors of the past, such
as Gioberti, Pellico (Le mie prigioni),
Previati, Segantini, Nietzsche, Kirkegaard and Freud (
The interpretation of dreams). The details of this story of over
two centuries, are told in Editoria e Arte a Milano, written by Donatella
Bertoletti and Giacomo Lodetti and published by Bocca Bookshop in 1999. Since
1979 the firm has been in the hands of Donatella and Giacomo. They restarted
the editorial activity, addressing a public of collectors and “bibliophiles”.
They created the Introvabili series - a small numbered collection of hand
printed books, on precious papers and illustrated by original graphics of
famous artists. Donatella and Giacomo specialise in the sale of books of art,
catalogues of exhibitions of all over the world and monographs of artists of
all languages. They founded the newspaper Arte Incontro in Libreria with 10000
copies freely circulated in 29 countries. They regularly promote a series of
cultural activities, from the presentation of books to the exhibition of works
of art: paintings, sculptures, ceramics and glasses. They also established a
web of international relations to promote the diffusion of the books of art to
another 58 bookshops. Now the Bocca Club has been created for the faithful
customers and collectors, for museums, university libraries, galleries and
antiquarians of all over the world.
Italia's Historical Company, sponsorship by Ministero Beni Culturali and Gold Medal by Camera di Commercio di Milano
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