Enrico Tallone

Pablo Neruda once called Alberto Tallone a “master of clarity, professor of purity, hero of the book”—qualities that are equally found in his son Enrico, who since 1973 has headed the printing house originally founded by his father in Paris in 1939.

Artistic Print and Publishing

Later moving to Alpignano (Italy), over the years this artistic printing house has attracted honours and accolades from all around the world. The beauty of its letterpress-printed books, designed to do justice to the literary works of the great authors in its catalogue (from the pre-Socratic philosophers to contemporary poets), is further enhanced by the “diversity” of each edition, set entirely by hand using original type fonts from punches created by great artists.

Tallone’s passion for art printing (he himself is the grandson of the painter Cesare Tallone) has led him to write and publish a series of books on typesetting by hand, in an effort to spread knowledge and understanding of the art of high-level printing, enabling appreciation of the charm and beauty of the font styles, layouts and formats of cultural books.

There is no typographic font that Tallone has not studied in depth. The printing house’s archive of fonts features eclectic, Art Nouveau, futurist, rationalist and modernist styles—a collection that is a one of its kind.

Tallone’s printed works have been featured in exhibitions and events around the world, from Rome to Kyoto to Santiago of Chile. His renowned passion and skill has brought frequent invitations to give lectures and speak at conferences and seminars about what Gianfranco Contini called, in reference to Tallone editions, “specimens of perfection”.

Awards and Honours

  • 1987
    Honorary diploma for the world’s most beautiful book (Leipzig), awarded for the Tallone edition of Poems by Ugo Foscolo.
  • 1991
    Premio Spadino d’oro.
  • 2010
    Ancora Aldina per la cultura del libro 2010 (Università Cattolica).
  • 2011
    Awarded the title Grand’ufficiale della Repubblica for cultural and artistic merit.
  • 2015
    The Sonia Raiziss Foundation Award for Book Art (New York).