Publishing enterprises

Rarely has triestine publishing evolved into an industry. More often it remained at the level of refined, courageous craftsmanship, althrough it has featured some extraordinary figures

The import-export of literature

From the Lloyd Austriaco editions to the Bobi Bazlen's contaminations

The Lloyd publishing house

Trieste, 1842-1931

The Lloyd publishing house, the third branch of the company after the naval and insurance sections, responded to the practical need of the shipping company to print its own bulletins, but soon evolved, printing edited editions of classics and periodicals aimed at the cultured entrepreneurial bourgeoisie of Trieste. Among these publications is “Letture di famiglia” (1851-1862), the first example of a variety magazine (short stories, poetry and news).

"Letture di famiglia", 1855 - coll. BC Hortis
"Letture di famiglia", 1855 - coll. BC Hortis
V.M. Corcos, Emilio Treves, 1907 - olio su tela Archivio Franco Maria Ricci
V.M. Corcos, Emilio Treves, 1907 - olio su tela Archivio Franco Maria Ricci

Emilio Treves

Emilio Treves from Trieste took the first steps in his career at Lloyd’s printing house. He went to become the owner of one of the most important Italian publishers, putting out works by the greatest writers of the time – although he rejected the works of his fellow triestino Svevo. L’Editoriale Libraria split off from Lloyd’s printing house in 1922, specializing in the children’s sector, so much so that in recent times it has become a leader in the sector in Italy.

Bobi Bazlen

Kafka, Kubin, Musil, Rilke, Broch, Hölderlin. But also Freud and Jung, and much Eastern literature and philosophy, from the Life of Milarepa to the I-Ching. What and how many books would Italians not have read without the intervention of Roberto Bazlen, the “literary dog” of the major publishing houses, from Einaudi to Olivetti’s Edizioni di Comunità, inventor with Luciano Foa of the Adelphi publishing house?

Roberto Bazlen, Fondo Bazlen di Luciano Foà - ph. © G. P. Calasso
Roberto Bazlen, Fondo Bazlen di Luciano Foà - ph. © G. P. Calasso
Anita Pittoni in her home-studio – coll. BC Hortis

Anita Pittoni

The granddaughter of Valentino Pittoni, leader of the Trieste socialists, she began a promising career as a fashion designer, achieving success at a national and international level. A poet and self-employed writer, she is now remembered above all for her editorial work. In 1949 she founded the publishing house Lo Zibaldone together with Giani Stuparich, to whom she was romantically linked, and Luciano Budigna, poet, critic and translator.

The Zibaldone imprint spread the literature from Trieste throughout Italy and abroad. In addition to Saba, whose collection Uccelli (1950) and the pamphlet Gli resta da fare ai poeti (1959), it printed works by Stuparich, Giotti, documents relating to the life of Svevo and relaunched works linked to the local area, including the Memoirs of Baron Sartorio (1949), the Riflessioni sul porto di Trieste by Antonio De Giuliani, and the work on Vienna nel ‘400 by Enea Silvio Piccolomini.

Anita Pittoni, 1930 - coll. BC Hortis - ph. Wulz
Anita Pittoni, 1930 - coll. BC Hortis - ph. Wulz
Anita Pittoni, 1970 ca. - coll. BC Hortis
Anita Pittoni, 1970 ca. - coll. BC Hortis
Anita Pittoni combined her literary production with intense cultural promotion work, opening her living room to the best minds in the city, launching promising young people, including Claudio Grisancich and Ugo Pierri, and, after Stuparich’s death conceiving a “study centre” named after him which, had the opportunity not been lost, would have represented an invaluable archive.
Anita Pittoni, Ginnaste, dalla rivista, 1933 - coll. BC Hortis
Anita Pittoni, Gymnasts, from the magazine “LiL Lavori in Lana”, 1933 - coll. BC Hortis
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