Gianni Basso - Stampatore in Venezia

 

The wonderful storefront window of Gianni Basso's printing shop

Wednesday                                                                           October 6, 2021

While meandering along the small and twisting streets in Cannoregio, this store window caught my eye.  How could you not stop?  Especially when one of the items was a printed broadside that said: "This is a printing office - Friend you stand on Sacred Ground".  So I turned into the doorway and encountered a grey haired artisan who looked up from his work on his printing press with a wry smile.

We began to talk, half Italian, half English.  I told him I loved his window and all the items in it.  And he told me his story - Gianni Basso, Stampatore in Venezia.  (Or as he says in English - Crazy Johnny.)  He has designed and printed for luminaries all over the world, and showed me letters and copies of printing he has done - presidents, actors, titans of business.  

He told me his shop is a museum of antiques and collections of the printing trade - would I like to see more?  You bet!

I love this broadside - "Friend, you are standing on sacred ground"

Gianni Basso was at work printing cards on his press, but he kindly stopped to chat and show me around his shop

Examples of his printing - including a beautiful rendering of a map of Venice.  

Gianni Basso is using a color called Venetian Red to print these cards

In college, I was the editor and producer of our daily news bulletin, The Bull, printed from items on the AP news wire and delivered to the Student Union and the dorms by 9 AM every day.  I ran the offset printing press, and had to maintain and service the machine.  This visit brought back familiar smells and sights and sounds from those days.

Gianni Basso has a large collection of antique typeface, and fields requests from all over the world to demonstrate and teach about stampography.  He has lectured for US universities and schools of design and hosted graduate students and other interested visitors.

He is very active with the US based organization Save Venice, which works to preserve and restore the artistic heritage of Venezia.  He was excited to learn we would be staying at Torcello, as the current Save Venice project is the restoration of the beautiful mosaic church on the island.  (And the church is the reason I love to stay there.)

I left his shop with some beautifully printed cards, some new appreciation for the art and design of printing and a new friend.

The machine on top of the drawers of type font is an antique hand printing press.  Michael mentioned he was reading a book about Ben Franklin, and Gianni Basso said this was the type of printing press Franklin would have used

These drawers hold collections of historic type fonts - including the first use of the Italic font.

This beautifully captures the definition of an artist - and Gianni Basso certainly has the heart of one.

A unique collection of type font -- chess pieces

Printed in Latin:  "If you have a garden, with a library, you will need nothing else."