LA FABBRICA DELLE PAROLE - mostra permanente sull’arte della stampa

From 10am to midnight (mon-sat)

Ticket: free

It was necessary for the client to sign below this wording “Visto si stampi”, in order to proceed with printing, in the days when "misprints" were not simple and tolerable oversights but regrettable and embarrassing errors that detracted from the prestige of the work. You can breathe in the smell of ink (literally) and the atmosphere of the old printing works in the permanent exhibition "La fabbrica delle parole" (The factory of words), in the spaces of the former Convitto Palmieri, where the Martano Printing Museum is housed. The precious exhibition traces the evolution of printing techniques over the centuries and, at the same time, the fascinating history of the Martano family in this field, which began in 1903, when Salvatore Martano founded a printing plant that is still handed down from father to son. Instruments and works ranging from the printing press (one dating back to 1881) to photocomposition and computers are examined. What emerges is a "little old world", populated by pressmen, typesetters, inkers, calligraphers and proofreaders, which was soon to be swept away by the evolution of linotype machines and the leaded page up to the Qaudritek 1200 and the very first models of the Macintosh, the true dawn of modern printing.