In Milan, a temporary store sells Henry Beyle limited editions
The shop, which is only 16 square meters, is open from September 2022 to the end of the year.
The 287 titles that currently make up the publishing house’s catalog are exhibited and put up for sale, but ” engravings and photographs of certain prints, and proofs, even monotype plates, are also exhibited » reminders Il Libraio.
Refined literary texts, in limited edition
The small publishing house Henry Beyle publishes around twenty titles a year, in limited editions of 365 to 575 numbered copies, all printed in monotype Garamond.
These are precious volumes containing short texts by the greatest authors of the 20th century in particular, whether Italian or foreign. Among them, Dino Buzzati, Leonardo Sciascia, Ennio Flaiano, Francis Scott Fitzgerald, Georges Perec, Thomas Mann or Franz Kafka.
Rather short texts are chosen in order to adapt them more easily to monotype composition and to the use of particularly precious papers.
An original approach
However, it is not only a question of taking up known or less known texts by rather classical authors. The books published by this ingenious little publisher are unique and original. For example, in 2015, a collection dedicated to the kitchen, Quaderni di kitchen (Cahiers de cuisine), one saw the light of day.
That’s what Vincenzo Campo said in an interview with Il Libraio in 2015 : ” It was a bet. Everyone makes cookbooks. From the peaks of snobbery, or supposed snobbery, to the peaks of democracy. I wanted to create a collection that was different and original from the others. Quaderni di kitchen welcomes Sciascia, Bontempelli, Praz. In September (2015), Come if eat in Milan by Dino Buzzati will be published. »
Photo credits: Mauricio Frias (CC BY-NC 2.0)