26 November 2025 – 10 January 2026
Opening on Wednesday, 26 November 2025, at 6 pm
The Italian Cultural Institute in Berlin presents the exhibition From Lead to Paper, from Gutenberg to Manuzio: The Revolution of the Book, promoted by the Venice International University (VIU) with the support of the Centro per il Libro e la Lettura and the contribution of the BKM – Der Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien.
Designed as a traveling exhibition that will visit several German cities, the project retraces the symbolic passing of the torch between Germany and Italy, weaving a centuries-long dialogue between two great European cultural traditions.
This exhibition was presented for the first time by Venice International University – VIU and shown inside the Italian Pavilion, Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2024. The project has been made possible with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, the Ministry of Culture, and the Centro per il Libro e la Lettura.
This exhibition celebrates Aldus Manutius, the greatest printer in history, active in Venice between 1494 and 1515, and highlights the extraordinary innovations he introduced in layout, type design, and typographic composition. In an ideal dialogue with Johannes Gutenberg, inventor of movable type printing in Mainz, the exhibition explores how Manutius transformed the book into a modern, portable, and accessible object through innovations such as the compact format, italic type, the title page, and the index.
Two complementary revolutions:
Gutenberg made knowledge reproducible and shareable; Manutius made it personal, portable, and destined for humanist readers. Set within an interactive, multimedia space, the exhibition immerses visitors in the dual revolution of printing and the book, through sounds, images, and texts that trace the evolution of humanist thought up to the present day.
For more information, please visit the web page of the Italian Cultural Institute in Berlin.
