Fratelli Bonvini
Heritage HouseMilano / Via Bonvini
Milan stationery-printing shop opened 9 July 1909 by brothers Costante and Luigia Bonvini in the Corso Lodi/San Luigi district, and restored to working order in 2014 with its original treadle press, 1930s Imperia platen press and wooden type drawers intact. Today it operates as a working letterpress and bookbindery, running typography and traditional paper workshops.
Best for Working 1909 Milan letterpress shop and bookbindery with original presses
Fratelli Bonvini opened as a stationery shop on 9 July 1909, when siblings Costante and Luigia Bonvini set up along Corso Lodi in Milan's then-industrial San Luigi district. The business quickly expanded into printing to serve the growing neighborhood, turning out everything from letterheads to price lists on machinery that included a late-19th-century treadle press, a 1930 Imperia platen press and a 1950s Heidelberg Stella -- all still on site today. Costante's daughter Leila Bonvini and her husband Luigi Cambieri kept the family workshop running for decades afterward.
In 2014, the associates of FBM S.r.l. carried out a conservative restoration of the premises at Via Tagliamento 1, preserving the original layout, printing machines, bookbinding equipment and wooden typographic drawers rather than converting the space. Bonvini 1909 reopened as a working shop and cultural venue combining a functioning letterpress, a bookbindery and gallery space for exhibitions.
The workshop today runs typography and bookbinding services alongside courses -- including a paste-paper (carta colla) workshop teaching the centuries-old technique for decorating book endpapers and covers -- positioning Bonvini 1909 as one of Milan's few surviving working print-and-bindery botteghe rather than a museum piece.
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