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BOOKS · BINDING · COLLECTING IN VICENZA
Leather, paper and gold: the bookbinding craft of Vicenza
A family bookbinding workshop in northern Italy
Books still get stitched, rebound, gilded and repaired by hand: in Vicenza, bookbinding has a family history. Fabio Ferro’s mother began learning the craft at twelve in a city centre bindery, before founding Legatoria Ferro with her husband in the 1970s. Fabio continued the business, whose work includes decorative gilding, at Via Giovanni Battista Quadri 21.
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Know before you go
Telephone: +39 0444 510733 Mobile: +39 349 4737742 Email: tegasss@gmail.com
For book collectors and bookbinding enthusiasts exploring Vicenza, Italy, Legatoria Ferro offers a local address for hand sewing, decorated bindings and book repair. Its portfolio includes restoration work, dictionaries, leather bindings and peacock patterned paper, alongside a substantial specialism: binding the records of Vicenza’s notaries.
A family history rooted in Vicenza
The family’s connection with bookbinding began at Legatoria Tonello in Vicenza’s historic centre. Fabio Ferro’s mother entered the workshop as an apprentice at twelve, learning the trade before establishing Legatoria Ferro with his father in the 1970s. Fabio subsequently continued the family business.
That apprenticeship is the starting point of the workshop’s history: a craft learned in one Vicenza bindery and passed into another.
How the books are sewn and finished
Ferro’s account of its work for notaries describes the binding process in detail. The sheets are checked and prepared for hand sewing. Once the first application of glue has dried, the volumes are numbered and fitted with rigid boards, covered in cloth, imitation leather or another selected fabric. The notary’s details and the volume information are then added to the spine through manual gilding.
One photograph on the workshop’s website shows 846 volumes bound for a single client’s office. For anyone interested in the construction of books, this is an unusually substantial example of hand binding serving a working archive.
Leather bindings, decorative paper and restoration
The workshop’s gallery includes examples labelled restoration, sewing details and headband application, as well as a binding combining leather with carta pavone, peacock patterned decorative paper.
These details give collectors specific work to examine: the sewing that holds the pages together, the finishing at the ends of the spine, and the combination of covering materials. A dictionary also appears among the examples, extending the portfolio to books made for repeated consultation.
If you are looking for a bookbinder in Vicenza to assess a damaged binding or discuss a new one, contact Ferro with photographs of the book, its dimensions and a description of the work you have in mind. For an old or valuable volume, explain which original elements you want to retain.
GOOD TO KNOW
Phone +39 0444 510733 +39 349 4737742 Before you go better to give a call: This is an active workshop, not a conventional visitor attraction, so better call first if you want to bring a book for repair or hope to see the bindery at work.