Bidspirit auction | Nicola Zingarelli

Nicola Zingarelli - Nicola Zingarelli - Documents and contracts, 1912. A fine collection of documents of various kinds. From a heartfelt postcard to his son Italo, dated August 1923, to the official announcement from the Bank of Naples regarding the purchase of Zingarelli's library in 1937 for the sum of 100,000 lire [now preserved in Cerignola]. Among the documents are his lengthy 12-page autobiography, the text read on his retirement, another to celebrate the 50th anniversary of his graduation, and so on. But the most interesting part undoubtedly concerns the contracts signed with various publishers for what was his absolute best-seller: the famous Vocabolario della Lingua italiana . The lion's share are the contracts with the Milanese publisher Bietti e Reggiani, for the printing of editions of the dictionary that coexisted alongside the famous Zanichelli editions. Therefore, the commercial agreements signed with others are of particular interest, for understanding some of the dynamics of the publishing market at the turn of the century. These are accounting and administrative documents dating from 1912 to 1925, detailed in terms of costs, revenues, print runs, etc. Other contracts for other works were stipulated with Sansoni of Florence, Loescher, Vallardi, etc. In the historical reconstruction of publishing events, the contract of September 26, 1912, between Zingarelli and Bietti and Reggiani for the production of a Modern Illustrated Vocabulary of the Italian Language deserves attention. This document attests to the well-known primacy of the publishers Bietti and Reggiani in the printing of the first Zingarelli Vocabolario. The first edition of Nicola Zingarelli's Vocabolario della lingua italiana was in fact published in installments by Bietti and Reggiani editori of Milan starting in 1917. It was released in instalments and boasted 3,000 black and white engravings and 24 colour plates.