One good thing about Autumn is the large number of auctions and book fairs. It is the moment all collectors wait for to see, touch, acquire “new” old books, hoping some dreams come true and the library becomes a bit richer.
After the Milano and Mantova fairs Cesena is the other awaited for event in the often cold and humid Northern Italy winter. Organized twice a year (November and February) it gathers dozens of antiquarian booksellers, mainly from Italy.
It is a beautiful event, attracting large crowds of curious and collectors because the fair gathers “general” antiquarians too. Before getting into the book section, one has to walk through paintings, sculptures and furniture, plunging the visitor into the right atmosphere and making him/her forget for a moment the digital world we live in.
The offer is quite diverse since old maps dealers stand close to librarians specialized in Futurism, 19th century travel books or early prints like us. Hence, the public is diverse too and for that reason we opted to vary our book offer including, besides our specialties, more recent editions such as Manzoni’s first tragedy Il Conte di Carmagnola, 1822 or Munchausen illustrated 1859 edition.
One other interesting feature of Cesena fair is people often come to show their hidden treasures, interested to show and assess the value of what they have at home since, often, decades. It was the case for a lady whose grandfather fought with the Fascist army in Ethiopia (1935-1936) bringing back manuscripts on vellum with sacred images or another couple showing a rare “Bohemian Bible” printed in Nuremberg in 1540 and not present in the Prague Bible Museum. Luckily this copy is now with Hermes Rare Books, ready to be restored to be given proper value and allowing it to last for at least another 500 years.
