Handmade Paper Stores

Written by Philippa Burne, UK, March 2012

RECOMMENDATION Keywords:
Good Place to Shop, Monument - Historical

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Comment from Philippa Burne

Venice has its typical souvenirs that everyone buys and every second shop sells: glass, lace, Carnivale masks. Another is paper – writing paper including little books with marbled covers, photo albums and more. I have to admit that these are where my money goes. Historically, Venice has always had a fine reputation for making good quality paper. The city became one of the first places in the world to begin printing books rather than having manuscripts copied by hand. But it was one man in Venice in the 15th century who changed everything: Aldo Manuzio. This man invented the italic typeface so he could fit more words on a page, then he decided that the huge size and weight of the first books kept reading and knowledge out of ordinary people’s hands, so he decided to fold the paper before printing it. Manuzio produced the first pocket sized book, the kind of book we take for granted today, printing the Greek classics for all the world to read. And this all happened in a building which still stands in the San Polo district, in Rio Terra Secondo.

Editor’s Note: This recommendation was taken from our Venice Things to Do blog. Visit the original post to continue reading the full post and to learn more about things to do in Venice.

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