{"id":4643,"date":"2020-06-24T18:06:12","date_gmt":"2020-06-24T18:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/primolevicenter.org\/printed-matter\/?p=4643"},"modified":"2020-06-24T18:06:12","modified_gmt":"2020-06-24T18:06:12","slug":"an-extraordinary-gift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/primolevicenter.org\/printed-matter\/an-extraordinary-gift\/","title":{"rendered":"An extraordinary gift"},"content":{"rendered":"
\nAlessandro Cassin<\/a>\r\n\t \t\t
Alessandro Cassin is the Director of CPL Editions<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Centro Primo Levi, has recently received a wonderful gift: a rare first edition of Primo Levi\u2019s Se  <\/span>Questo \u00e8 un uomo ( If This Is a Man) , <\/i>published by Francesco De Silva, in Turin, in 1947. <\/i>We are thrilled to have this precious volume ( which we will make available to scholars for consultation) and would like to thank Giorgio Van Straten for his generosity. For us  <\/span>his gift has many dimensions: a tangible one \u2014 the physical object\u2014  <\/span>and symbolically one \u2014  <\/span>a last token of his friendship\u2014 sealing what been a most fruitful collaboration during his tenure as Director of the Italian Cultural Institute in New York between 2015 and 2019.<\/p>\n

First editions exert a profound fascination and interest, not only on bibliophiles.  <\/span>There are many reasons for this but mainly, as in the case of this edition of Se questo \u00e8 un uomo<\/i>,  <\/span>because a first edition is the physical manifestation of a particular moment in the life of a book and reflects a significant time in the broader culture.<\/p>\n

A first edition attests to a collaboration, and sometimes a tension, between author and publisher on many issues: the title, cover, occasionally an introduction or a graphic layout. Writers often participate in the production of the first edition. They may insist on corrections, additions  <\/span>or cuts , up to the last minute.<\/p>\n

Further, a cover or the book design of a series, often remains etched  <\/span>in  <\/span>our collective memory, prompting references to a specific time and place. <\/span><\/p>\n

A brief recapitulation of this first edition. Primo Levi, completed the manuscript of If This is A Man, on  <\/span>December 22, 1946. After careful revisions, he began to contact publishers by January of the 1947. Much to his disappointment the book was rejected by Einaudi, and subsequently by five other publishing houses (as documented by Ian Thomson  <\/span>in A life, Primo Levi<\/i>). <\/span><\/p>\n

Eventually, on Alessandro Galante Garrone\u2019s suggestion, the manuscript was brought to the attention of Franco Antonicelli, who after having lead Piedmont\u2019s National Committee for Liberation, had started a small press called  <\/span>Francesco De Silva (after a fifteen\u2019s century Piedmontese printer). Antonicelli agreed to the publication and choose the title, from a verse in the opening poem. The book was on sale from October 11th, 1947, with a reproduction of an etching by Francisco Goya on the cover. Antonicelli  <\/span>(De Silva) had made a first edition of 3000 copies, of which about half were sold, despite little critical attention. Only two reviewers, Italo Calvino and  <\/span>Arrigo Cajumi, recognized the greatness of the work, at that stage. <\/span><\/p>\n

Later, the unsold copies of all of De Silva\u2019s catalog were purchased by La Nuova Italia, a publisher in Florence. In  <\/span>1958, reversing its initial decision, Einaudi picked up the now out of print Se questo \u00e8 un uomo<\/i>, and released a new edition. (For a close analysis of the differences in the De Silva and the Einaudi edition, see Opere complete<\/i>, ed. Marco Belpoliti in collaboration with Centro Internazionale di Studi Primo Levi).  <\/span><\/p>\n

As the new Einaudi edition, was gaining traction with readers and critics, the unsold copies of the De Silva edition, were destroyed in the  <\/span>flood that devastated Florence in 1966.<\/p>\n

It is an honor for Centro Primo Levi to now own a precious copy of the De Siva edition of Levi\u2019s seminal work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Centro Primo Levi, has recently received a wonderful gift: a rare first edition of Primo Levi\u2019s Se  Questo \u00e8 un uomo ( If This Is a Man) , published by…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4644,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books"],"yoast_head":"\nAn extraordinary gift - Printed_Matter<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/primolevicenter.org\/printed-matter\/an-extraordinary-gift\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"An extraordinary gift - Printed_Matter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Centro Primo Levi, has recently received a wonderful gift: a rare first edition of Primo Levi\u2019s Se  Questo \u00e8 un uomo ( If This Is a Man) , published by...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/primolevicenter.org\/printed-matter\/an-extraordinary-gift\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Printed_Matter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-06-24T18:06:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/primolevicenter.org\/printed-matter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/SQUDeSILVAPM.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"522\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"adkim\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"adkim\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/primolevicenter.org\/printed-matter\/an-extraordinary-gift\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/primolevicenter.org\/printed-matter\/an-extraordinary-gift\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"adkim\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/primolevicenter.org\/printed-matter\/#\/schema\/person\/7db57d2ae8d63dbc6c645dc92917ebe2\"},\"headline\":\"An extraordinary gift\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-06-24T18:06:12+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/primolevicenter.org\/printed-matter\/an-extraordinary-gift\/\"},\"wordCount\":580,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/primolevicenter.org\/printed-matter\/an-extraordinary-gift\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/primolevicenter.org\/printed-matter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/SQUDeSILVAPM.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Books\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/primolevicenter.org\/printed-matter\/an-extraordinary-gift\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/primolevicenter.org\/printed-matter\/an-extraordinary-gift\/\",\"name\":\"An extraordinary gift - 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