Tipoteca Italiana is a printing house, a museum, an archive, a library, a gallery and an auditorium. Through these channels, the unique institution offers visitors the opportunity to discover and experience the beauty of typographic art. It was founded in 1995 by Silvio Antiga and his brothers, who all grew up in the trade, being the owners of an important printing house. Their purpose was to create a cultural extension of their company, through which they could revive the knowledge of letterpress and make it pertinent to contemporary times.
Silvio started working almost sixty years ago as a composer for movable type printing. Since then, the tools within a printing house have radically changed, and digital technology has revolutionised the printing processes. However, whenever possible, he prefers letterpress printing and tries to offer it to his customers, especially for high-quality editions or prints. His ‘analogical’ training allows him to always evaluate with awareness what is printed on paper, and he believes the letterpress technique always retains an unsurpassed expressiveness and graphic strength.