Article courtesy of Il Giornale dell’Arte
To ran through the book heritage of which Venice was the undisputed capital from the fifteeenth century on, when Aldo Manuzio (1450- 1515), bringing to perfection the teachings of the German printers who had moved to the lagoon at the beginning of the century, worked out his typographic revolution: this is the new proposal of the Correr museum, exhibiting the best of its collections in the halls 6 – 14 at the first floor. It seems to be a proposal addressed to a narrow élite di bibliophiles, instead it is an exhibition perfectly enjoyable also by the big public, thanks to the interest of the exhibited documents and the precious volumes’graphic quality.
Title: “WORDS AND IMAGES: moments of history of book and printings taken from the Correr museum’s collections” edited by Pietro Lucchi and Monica Viero, open until 10 December.
It begins from an original page of the Bible of Gutenberg, the fundamental book of the protestant Reformation; then it goes on with the Apocalyps illustrated by 15 drawings by Albrecht Durer, visionary and colourful. Again on religious theme, but on a more popular side, are the “Little flowers”, edifying anecdotes on Mary and Jesus’s lives, which are suspected of heresy and thus prohibited by the Counter-Reformation.
Then comes the practical side, that is to say the calculation books, with the different symbols of circulating coins and the double match (other Venetian supremacy) or the travel Portolani and the diaries by the brothers Zen who reached Persia at the beginning of the fifteenth century.
Between the scientific treatises there is also the one on geometry called of the “Divina Proportione” of Luca Pacioli, illustrated by Leonardo.
On the humanistic side there are many editions, both esteemed and popular, of Italian classics, Dante and Tetrarca, and the ones relative to authors as Ovidio and his “Metamorfosi” of which some episodes are illustrated in the elegant renaissance maiolica wares by Nicolò da Urbino.
Extraordinary for quality and beauty is the print reproduction of the medal showcase of Giovanni Francesco Barberigo (1658 – 1730) intent in celebrating the glorious deeds of his ancient family.
The exhibition ends with the elegantly illustrated art guides of the end of the nineteenth century. Before the coming of photography.
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06-09-2006 09-02-2007 |
Words and figures - Episodes of history of books and printing from the collectioin of the Correr Museum | Museo Correr |
Exhibitions |
| A suggestive itinerary through the history of the book and of printing at Venice, from Gutenberg and the proto-typographers touching on Aldo Manuzio and Dürer, until the 1800's. | ||||