Past and Present: the Italian printing industry in the 15th century and today

Inspired by the interest for the Printing R-Evolution exhibition shown by a group of Italian publishers, Chiara Medioli (Vice-President, Fedrigoni) and Cristina Dondi decided to pull data at their disposal together and produce a comparison of the Italian publishing industry in the 15th century and today. Today the roles of the graphic designer and of the printer proper, which were combined in the printing workshops of the 15th century, are separate, and this is reflected in the data projected in the 2020 map, where the green is used for the graphic designers, and the yellow for the printers. Data came from ISTC (all printing shops active in every printing city, edited by the 15cBOOKTRADE) and from Fedrigoni (top 1000 graphic designers and top 250 printers). The maps were created by the Atlas of Early Printing (Univ. of Iowa, coordinated by Greg Prickman), and designed by Sebastiano Girardi Studio, Venice.

https://www.printingrevolution.eu/virtual-exhibition/past-present/