In our contribution we will look at the complex relationship between printers, poets, publishers and painters in the making of the Giornale dei bambini. This highly successful magazine was edited by Ferdinando Martini, one of the most influential writers of the beginning of the 1880s, and in its first issue it published the first installation of the serial Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi. However, much of the success of the magazine was probably due to the high quality of graphic narratives and illustrations it included. Of those, only a few were drawn especially for the magazine: the majority was formed by simple redrawings of materials published abroad, with occasional adaptations for the Italian readers (e.g., in stories by Wilhelm Bush a beer keg could be redrawn as a wine flask, or a pretzel could be referred to as ‘two donuts’). The study of the unpublished correspondence between Martini, Guido Biagi and their lawyers during a legal crisis in the life of the magazine allows us to describe the technicalities of the printing. Moreover, this correspondence allows us to describe also how texts and verses were written according to the available illustrations and the complex subdivision of tasks wich allowed editors to manage the workflow.
Printers, Poets, Publishers and Painters: Pinocchio and the Giornale per i bambini
TAVOSANIS, MIRKO LUIGI AURELIO;
2011-01-01
Abstract
In our contribution we will look at the complex relationship between printers, poets, publishers and painters in the making of the Giornale dei bambini. This highly successful magazine was edited by Ferdinando Martini, one of the most influential writers of the beginning of the 1880s, and in its first issue it published the first installation of the serial Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi. However, much of the success of the magazine was probably due to the high quality of graphic narratives and illustrations it included. Of those, only a few were drawn especially for the magazine: the majority was formed by simple redrawings of materials published abroad, with occasional adaptations for the Italian readers (e.g., in stories by Wilhelm Bush a beer keg could be redrawn as a wine flask, or a pretzel could be referred to as ‘two donuts’). The study of the unpublished correspondence between Martini, Guido Biagi and their lawyers during a legal crisis in the life of the magazine allows us to describe the technicalities of the printing. Moreover, this correspondence allows us to describe also how texts and verses were written according to the available illustrations and the complex subdivision of tasks wich allowed editors to manage the workflow.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
