As a bookseller, I get to handle all sorts of interesting things, but I have a personal weakness for collecting early letterpress and engraved forms, such as receipts, licenses, certificates, and permits. Filling out new forms is pure drudgery, but reading old, already filled-out forms is pure joy. I am especially interested in forms that include printed imagery and seem to have been more painstakingly produced than was strictly necessary for their function. Exhibited here are three Italian forms used to summon people to work. They are at once invitations, reminders, passes, and commemorative pieces.
[Abbazia dei Santi Naborre e Felice]. Viene pregata ritrovarsi [Mercordi], che sarà li [21.] di [Ottobre] 17[67], a ore [21.] al Monistero delle RR. MM. de’ SS. Naborre, e Felice, dette dell Abbadia… [Bologna]: etching signed by Lodovico Mattioli, dated in manuscript 21 October 1767.
Letterpress form headed with an etching, filled out in manuscript.
A form used by the nuns of the Abbey of SS. Naborre e Felice in Bologna to summon outsiders to their convent. Here the recipient was a lawyer whose expertise was needed in 1767 to certify a land deal with the monastery of San Giorgio and to record a bequest. The etching—depicting St. Clare with the abbey’s titular saints—is by Lodovico Mattioli (1662-1747), who produced ephemeral prints for several convents in Bologna.
[Milan Cathedral]. Si compiacerà [V. S. Ill.ma e Rev.ma] ritrovarsi il giorno di [Giovedì] che sarà illi [3] del mese di [Agosto entrante] alle ore [otto pomeridiane] al Capitolo della [V.d] Fabbrica del Duomo di Milano … [Milan]: dated in manuscript 31 July 1826.
Letterpress form headed with a woodcut image, filled out in manuscript.
An invitation printed for the Veneranda Fabbrica del Duomo di Milano to summon members to occasional meetings concerning the construction, maintenance and preservation of Milan Cathedral. Construction on Milan Cathedral began in 1386 and continued for nearly 600 years. This form, dated 1826 in manuscript, is headed by a woodcut of the Virgin Mary protecting the façade of the cathedral within her cloak.
[University of Florence]. Excellentissime Domine. Jubente Excellentiss. P. Magistro Almae Universitatis Florentinae Decano Theologorum, conveniemus in Metropolitanam Ecclesiam… [Florence]: s.n., [c. 1740s].
Letterpress form filled out in manuscript, with woodcut borders and woodcut initial, manuscript notes on verso.
A reminder (c. 1740) for faculty members and administrators at the University of Florence to attend an upcoming conferral of a doctoral degree. In this instance, the new doctor was scheduled to be “created” on 20 September between 8 and 9 A.M. Typically this ceremony happened at the Metropolitan Church (e.g., Florence Cathedral), but that location is crossed out here. The form is signed by a certain Petrus Massai.
