Crafting letters into books
Tallone Editore is one of the few publishing houses in Europe still creating precious books – literature and poetry masterpieces and a selection of contemporary authors –entirely handset and handmade. The history of the atelier is as fascinating as their sublime craftsmanship. In 1938 the founder Alberto Tallone, who was working as Maurice Darantière's pupil in Paris at the time, bought the studio from his master and moved it to the Hôtel de Sagonne, in the Marais district. Maurice Darantière was the man who set by hand and letterpress printed James Joyce's "Ulysses" in first edition in 1922.
Alberto acquired from him not just the atelier but also the original foundry types and printing presses which are still part of the exceptional Tallone archives, a collection enriched in the following years by new additions after Alberto moved the studio in 1959 to Alpignano, close to Turin. Many of the original foundry types are veritable works of art, which derive from handcut steel punches engraved with a burin by great artists, and they are just one of the secret ingredients that the Tallone heirs are still using today to create their beautifully handprinted collectible books.
Where
Alberto Tallone Editore
