Federico, Davide, and Antonio - Morning Bell Edition
It is always exciting for all of us at Collectible Book Vault when we see a talented group of individuals enter into the fine press space bringing their own unique passions and approach to creating beautiful handmade editions. Today we are talking to the three masterminds behind the new venture under the name Morning Bell Edition, based out of Modena, Italy. Their first release is a wonderfully realized version of one of the most famous Italian stories of all time, Pinnochio. Their commitment to the finest details and the attention paid to every aspect of the book is very clear from the start and we can't wait to see how their first project comes out. We hope you enjoy this conversation and take some time check out these talented individuals at Morning Bell Edition.
Q: We have been following your announcements and Kickstarter since you first announced earlier this year and we are so excited to finally sit down and chat. Morning Bell Edition is made up of three members, Federico, Davide, and Antonio, comprised of two bookbinders and an antiquarian bookseller respectively. Can you tell us a little of the backstory of how you each came into this collaboration and what you think each person brings to the table at Morning Bell?
A: The idea of Morning Bell originated about a decade ago when the paths of the three partners crossed. It’s true that two of us are bookbinders, but we are also restorers of antique books, and the one who is an antiquarian, Antonio, is a particular kind of antiquarian, in fact, he is an antiquarian bookseller. To clarify, he does a job made famous by Johnny Depp in the film "The Ninth Gate," inspired by the novel The Club Dumas by Arturo Pérez-Reverte. An antiquarian bookseller always needs skilled restorers. Since Bottega dei Gozzi has been a reference point for restoring antique books and for producing high-level art bindings and facsimile prints for over 120 years, it was almost inevitable that we would come into contact. Talking amongst ourselves, we discovered that we share a great passion: the love for books and the craftsmanship involved in their creation. Among the partners, Davide and Federico have exceptional manual skills and can understand what can be technically accomplished and what, instead, is impossible. Antonio has expertise related to the history of book collecting through the centuries and knows well the dynamics that drive a collector to seek one type of book over another.
Q: Two of your founding members, Davide and Federico, are coming from Bottega di Gozzi in Modena, Italy, a bindery that is over 120 years old and has worked in restoration and custom projects for generations. After all this time working with restoring older texts with classical bindings, what was the catalyst that pushed you to jump into modern fine press bindings, particularly with such a contemporary aesthetic?
Bottega dei Gozzi, since its inception, has complemented its production of "classic" bindings with the production of contemporary fine bindings, often with an extremely modern taste linked to the time when the works were commissioned. We can say that aesthetic experimentation has always been, from the beginning, one of the characteristics of Bottega dei Gozzi. Let me share a curiosity. Even in our approach to Pinocchio, we slowly worked towards the final result. You can’t imagine how many bindings we created before arriving at the ones we present to you today. While it’s true that initially we created tests that we could define as more classic, we were clear from the start that the bookbinding should, ultimately, be the one that, more than anything else, along with the illustrations, should be a child of its time and therefore, extremely modern.
Our idea is to create an object that can simultaneously contain the history of the book's printing from its origins (hand binding, letterpress printing, manually printed illustrations) to the present day. We say that the binding and the aesthetics of the illustrations are the parts that should represent the modernity of our Pinocchio. We want this coexistence of the ancient and modern to remain one of the foundational characteristics of all future titles that Morning Bell will publish.
Q: You chose the name Morning Bell as you said it would “evoke the state of being immersed between two different worlds when you are reading, a link between the land and reality.” This is something fascinating that I have always enjoyed about a truly engrossing book, when you physically feel yourself pulled back into reality and there is a tangible and immersive quality to a story. What qualities of a book do you think lend to this experience and what was the last book you read where you experienced this phenomenon?
This is a beautiful question. Perhaps there is no universal characteristic that allows a book to, as you say, "pulled back" a reader into another world. We believe that each reader has different reasons for feeling transported into a different world by one book rather than another, but upon reflection, there is one thing that connects all these “journeys,” and that is the object of the book itself. Like in The Neverending Story by Ende, the book is always, in one way or another, a door or a window to another world.
I believe that each of us remembers our favorite novels, not just the story but also the book object that told it to us. Furthermore, the relationship with the book is not a one-way street. Antonio, as an antiquarian bookseller, is well aware that not only does the reader receive from the book, but the book itself carries, through the centuries, the marks of its readers. Ownership notes, printed ex-libris, handwritten dedications, ink marks—every book is a world unto itself. Even the total absence of any marks on a hundred-year-old book is a fascinating and curious story. Like in The Ship of Theseus by J.J. Abrams and Doug Dorst, every book, beyond the printed story in its pages, can tell the personal stories of the readers who have held it. For this reason, the book is truly a living object that leaves to posterity the story of those who wrote it, made it, and read it.
We would like the books we create to tell the story of Morning Bell, of our friendship, along with the personal stories of those who will be the readers and collectors of our books. For this reason, we have thought to allow collectors, should they wish, to personalize their copy with a phrase printed in movable type.
As for the book that has recently given us this feeling of “transport,” since there are three of us, we would like to mention three titles, all “rereadings” of previously read books because every reading, even of the same title, is different from the previous one: The Neverending Story by Ende, already mentioned above, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (Antonio has been reading it at least once or twice a year for 30 years), and A Christmas Carol by Dickens.
For me (Davide) it was the retrieval of a Stephen King short story, The Cycle of the Werewolf, suggested to me by Antonio. King undoubtedly has the ability to estrange the reader from the present and immerse them in his accessible world of shadows. I couldn't tear myself away, reading a chapter a day to make it last as long as possible.
I (Federico) relate to what Antonio said and consider The Neverending Story to be a totally immersive book. Those books from which it is totally impossible to detach yourself. Who knows, maybe one day we could make a version too!
Q: Morning Bell has a strong commitment to everything being done by hand whether it be the handsewn headband, letterpress printed type, or the book being completely handbound. Why is this such an important piece for the mission of Morning Bell and can you tell us how this extends to each aspect of your productions?
As we mentioned earlier, the book is one of those objects through which humanity can demonstrate the utmost of its ingenuity, both in terms of content and craftsmanship. As Umberto Eco says, "The book is like a spoon, a hammer, a wheel, scissors. Once you've invented them, you can't do better. You can't make a spoon that is better than a spoon."
If the concept of the book is perfect in itself, we want to strive to get closer to this Platonic idea of perfection by creating a book meticulously attended to in every detail, and this can only be done by keeping every aspect of its creation at an artisanal level. At the beginning of our journey, when Morning Bell was still just an idea, we started telling friends, colleagues, and publishers with whom we were in contact about what we wanted to do, and everyone thought we were crazy. "The costs will be prohibitive," "The world of printing is heading towards maximum cost reduction," "People are only willing to pay a few euros for culture," "The production times will be biblical," were the phrases we commonly heard. However, we knew we had several advantages over many other publishers and art book producers.
The first advantage is that we would create books primarily for passion and not for profit. The second advantage is that the majority of the book’s production would be carried out within Bottega dei Gozzi, which, unlike almost all other realities, has the ability and artisanal knowledge to create a book from start to finish.
Bottega dei Gozzi will take care of the whole part of bookbinding, the hand stitching of the volume, the making of the headband by hand, the indorsing phase (i.e. giving the round to the spine of the book), the making of the cover starting from the inlays, to the hot and gold stamping using an early 20th-century machine, coloring of the upper part of the book with natural colors or gold leaf.
Also, part of the printing will be done in-house, the textual part will be printed in letterpress by Archivio Tipografico, and all the illustrations will be printed in-house by hand one by one using an early 20th century proofpress, the legendary Saroglia. The guard cards will also be printed by hand, but these will be screen printed using natural colors, the black will in fact be a mixture of indigo, madder, chlorophyll and graphite.
Q: There is a clear goal with your imprint to meld a classical centuries-old craft with modern elements. One of the most obvious ones for this first project is your artist selection, Luca Zamoc. He has talked about how he chose not to represent Pinocchio within the book, but focused on the theme of evil and depicting villains within the story. He believes that by not depicting the main character, it allows the reader to take on the perspective and lens while reading. Seeing the illustrations and starting to put the project together, what is your perspective on the role of illustrations in a story and how are you feeling about how Zamoc’s work is integrating with the other elements of the project?
Morning Bell aims to provide the reader/collector with a means to accompany them on their adventure. The books we create will be this means, and as such, they must always remind the reader that the book they hold is the result of an object that, thanks to countless people, has evolved over thousands of years, starting from the idea of a physical medium that could transport thoughts through time and space.
We can say that while our craftsmanship, along with that of our Turin printing partners at the Archivio Tipografico, represents the link to the past of printing, the illustrations by Zamoc, representing the contemporary aspect through the artist himself, come together to form an art object in the true sense of the Latin word “Ars,” which means the ability to create an object using knowledge and techniques passed down or reworked to do so.
Q: You have previously mentioned that you would like to do more classics in the future. Do you see your future selection of titles firmly planted in historically revered books that have stood the test of time or would you consider doing more contemporary titles in the future? Also, being based in Italy, do you see yourself leaning towards authors like Boccaccio, Alighieri, Calvino and Eco or does the origin of the author factor less in future productions?
When we say "classic," we mean titles that have universally marked the history of world literature in some way, so surely the nationality of the author will not be one of our basic criteria in the selection of future titles. Certainly, in choosing the first title, we wanted to refer, as Italians, to our cultural tradition and also highlight the same, but the choice of Pinocchio was made also because it is one of the books that has most marked the collective imagination worldwide. Just think of Pinocchio's nose that grows when he tells lies. Practically in every language in the world, the image of the stretching nose is synonymous with “lie.” Therefore, when we use the term classic, we do not mean ancient texts but also contemporary titles that in some way have represented and continue to represent literary references worldwide.
We already have many ideas for new titles to propose. Some will certainly be titles that we could call “expected,” both contemporary and not, but we have several surprises in store that we hope will be appreciated. Some titles could also be true "rediscoveries" for numerous readers. Keep in mind that we are three avid and omnivorous readers, each with their own preferences and literary fixations, so you can imagine how many titles are swirling around in our heads. We are passionate readers of Stephen King, Frank Herbert, Stanislaw Lem, Kipling, Tolkien, Eco, Stoker, Pratchett, Philip Pullman, Michael Ende, but also of Dante, Gogol, Gombrowicz, Austen, Blixen, Cervantes, Mickiewicz, Dumas, etc. In short, we can say that we have no shortage of ideas.
Q: This is obviously a monumental undertaking for your team and there has been a lot of time and energy put into this project before the Kickstarter has even launched. Was there something unique in the fine press world that you believed you could speak to specifically with your imprint and if you have anything special planned for the Kickstarter launch coming up?
You made a very good point. Just to give you an idea, it took us months to decide on the type of paper to use for the different editions, and we did it only after conducting hundreds of hand-printing tests on dozens and dozens of different types of paper. The time spent on the project has been enormous, but we did it with joy precisely because of the passion that guided us, and I must say that now that the project is coming to fruition, we see, in retrospect, a journey that has allowed us to meet many people. We hope that the journey of Morning Bell will allow us to meet even more. We believe we have much to say in the field of books that we can define as “art books” in limited editions.
First of all, because our book, like the books we will produce in the future, is the result of many people's passion for the book, and we believe this is evident in our edition of The Adventures of Pinocchio, it is not the result of a single individual's work but of what has become a group of friends. With this, I do not refer only to the three of us partners but to all those friends who have supported us and helped us with their advice in some way.
You should know something that we may not have told you before. While the initial idea of a publishing house that prints books with such a level of artisanal care as they do today is rarely found on the market, it was the three of us partners who came up with it.
During this journey, with enthusiasm, little by little, several friends joined us, helping us create the illustrated Pinocchio by Zamoc with their advice and assistance—collector friends like Giulio, typography experts like Marco, artists like Luca, publishers, printing experts like our friends from Turin of Archivio Tipografico, professional graphic designers, and many others. To them, we certainly owe our thanks. We would also like to add a special thank you to the Carlo Collodi National Foundation (it is the Foundation that for years has been committed to preserving the places of Collodi's life and to promoting the story of The Adventures of Pinocchio throughout the world), which has given its free patronage to the project and provided us with the Italian and English texts of The Adventures of Pinocchio in versions that are considered the most philologically accurate.
Q: In the current landscape, the majority of book collectors who are buying modern fine press books reside outside of Italy in places like the U.S., U.K., Australia and other larger markets that have an appetite for what you are creating. What excites you about it being a venture that will reach people all over the world and is there anything you are seeking to do specifically to expand that market in Italy and build a client base in your home country as well?
Our work experience has always led us to ignore the concept of national borders, and perhaps, as Italians, we have this openness towards the world somewhat in our blood. For this reason, we want Morning Bell to be as international a reality as possible. Both as Bottega Gozzi and as an antiquarian bookstore, we have clients and friends all over the world, so I would say that what excites us the most is being able to create something beautiful that can be universally appreciated. Certainly, the type of book we are going to produce is a type of project that has many enthusiasts abroad, but there are also passionate collectors in Italy. We should say, in fact, that we have been pleasantly surprised by the interest that the project is generating even in Italy, and if this leads more Italians to be interested in this type of work, we couldn’t be happier.
Q: Picture the Morning Bell team working on a new project five years from now. What would you hope to have achieved by that point and what would be your markers for success, both artistically and from a business standpoint?
In five years? We are dreamers, and we imagine a Morning Bell team working fifty years from now, perhaps with our children in our place (we are three new dads for a few years now), with an even larger group of friends, united around a table brainstorming a new edition that can still amaze a circle of loyal clients. As mentioned above, the number of titles we would like to print is huge, so we will have plenty of ideas for many years.
One thing we would like to do is find ways to involve collectors more and more in the ways books are made. We don’t say this to flatter, but commercial success has a single indicator for us: if we can have a number of clients that appreciate our work enough to support our editions, for us it means we have achieved all the artistic and commercial success we hoped for when we founded Morning Bell.
Q: Without regard to any current barriers, if each of you could pick a single book that would be your dream to recreate under the Morning Bell imprint, what would that be and why?
I, Antonio, say The Last Man by Mary Shelley. I know it’s not one of her more famous titles and certainly not her most successful, but I love that novel. The idea that the last human being on earth is Mary Shelley seems to me a fitting farewell from humanity to existence.
Melville's Moby Dick, without a shadow of a doubt (Davide) is a dream shared with the artist who illustrated this Pinocchio (Luca Zamoc), its importance in world literature goes hand in hand with its physical greatness, it is truly a white whale for a publishing house like us, we will only be able to realize it when we have already conducted several adventures in the "mare magnum" in which we are immersing ourselves.
The title that I, Federico, would like to reproduce in our own version is the entire Harry Potter saga. Difficult task, I know, but if we’re talking about dreams, let’s dream big!
Q: If there was one word or defining phrase that came to people’s minds when they think of Morning Bell, what would you desire that it would be?
They have produced yet another book that only they could have realized.
Q: What should we be looking forward to next from Morning Bell beyond your release of Pinocchio? Is there anything coming further down the road that you can share or are excited about?
We have news. Along with the volume, a poster for the Fire Eater (Mangiafuoco in Italian) puppet show. On the one hand, Luca Zamoc, already immersed in the atmosphere of the project, created a magnificent and imposing Fire Eater. On the other, typographer Luca Lattuga, one of the foremost experts on typefaces in Italy, designed the textual part after conducting extensive research on the fonts of the period, also using sets of typefaces recovered from disused printing houses. The poster will be printed in two colors with natural inks on the highest-quality paper. To choose the color combination, we held an event at the workshop inviting the public to vote for their favorite, which will become the official one.
Clearly, everything is linked to the success of the Morning Bell Pinocchio project, but we already have ideas for the next title and some curious ideas for its realization, but we don’t want to spoil the surprise.
_______________________________________________________
This interview was done in a series of communications back and forth with the team at Morning Bell Edition. If you want to order a copy of Pinocchio or see what else is upcoming you can see what Morning Bell Edition has to offer, follow them at https://www.morningbelledition.com/ and check out their Kickstarter starting next week. For updates on current projects check them out on Facebook or Instagram to stay up to date on what's coming up in the future for Morning Bell Edition!
Interview by: Zach Harney, co-founder of the Collectible Book Vault