What is a facsimile?

A facsimile is an extremely accurate reproduction of a book.
Even though rules and principles of this art have been somehow defined, this is not enough to avoid a certain indeterminateness and sometimes allows poor reproductions to be defined “facsimiles”.
Standard and main characteristics of a facsimile are defined by bibliophiles and collectors that buy – or not – certain products; they have been educated to pay attention to details by the few qualified publishers operating on this particular market, a really narrow élite to which we are honoured to belong.
Our publishing house works on the basis of the same principles adopted by our partners operating on the German and on the Spanish markets – where the culture of facsimiles has been developed for a long time -, that is to say to riproduce the original codex on the basis of the following criteria:
• the facsimile has no pretention to replace the original completely. It is always, declaredly, a reproduction. The aim is not that of producing an imitation, but that of reproducing the original as it is, in its current conditions, with its colours and its miniatures and with its imperfections and damages.

• Considering the characteristics of the original, any time that the production of a facsimile starts, the most suitable techniques are chosen to obtain the maximum quality of the reproduction, always bearing in mind the evolution of technologies as well.

• The edition never exceeds the 1000 copies. The enclosed certificate and a colophon on the volume define and certify this further characteristic.

• Stitch and binding are rigorously handmade, entrusted to the few binders that still preserve and practise this ancient art and that usually take care of the restoration of the original codices in the most famous libraries in the world.

• The facsimile is distributed with a commentary volume containing essays, purposely produced by famous scholars, that supplies the collector with the necessary historical and artistic information about the original.
A preliminary moment of the photographic campaign (digital or on film)
in the Estense Library
Tone and selection
of additional colours
done entirely through
digital technologies
A complete edition within its box;

below: detail of the embroidered cover.
Printing
Binding