Tallone Editore - Emily Dickinson Poems

A few months ago Tallone Editore was recommended to me as one of the best fine presses in the world. I was very eager to research the press and familiarize myself with their publications. A few minutes into browsing their website I reached the conclusion that while their books are beautiful, they weren't for me, as I don't read Italian. However, I was very impressed by the fact that the recommender either can read Italian or appreciates the quality so much, their inability to read the text was not a hindrance.

A few weeks ago after stumbling upon comments on this forum discussing Tallone's edition of Emily Dickinson poems left me perplexed. Had Tallone Editore published Dickinson in Italian or had I missed something on the website? Either way, I was intrigued and I quickly learned the latter to be the truth. I wanted to add Tallone Editore to my collection and also wanted to add an Emily Dickinson collection to my collection. Prendere due piccioni con una fava! That's "kill two birds with one stone" in Italian according to Google.

A few hours ago this beautiful edition arrived at my door:

>1 Esoterics:
Magnificent!
You certainly did not buy their cheapest edition!!!

Love, love, love Tallone. I believe that they are the only press currently publishing full-length books (e.g. their Hamlet or Dante) using hand-set movable type. Their commitment to the craft is magnificent and should be greeted with as much support as collectors can muster.

>3 grifgon: Never heard of them before, but am quite interested now. Are most of their works in Italian? The Divine Comedy looks wonderful but it's a little too much for my tastes since I don't know nor do I plan to learn Italian.

>1 Esoterics: What are your thoughts? Do you recommend the purchase?

>4 Joshbooks1: They have a handful of titles in English. If you go to their shop and scroll over "All titles" at the top of the page, you can select from various languages. I believe the OP got the 350 euro edition of Emily, which looks to be a very reasonable price for this lovely book, especially with free shipping.

>4 Joshbooks1: Yes, most of their current works are in Italian, but they also publish in English, French, and occasionally Greek or Latin.

Though the Tallone family has owned the operation since 1938, they inherited it from Maurice Darantière, who most famously printed (with hand-set type) the first edition of Ulysses. The press really goes back farther than the Talloni and has played a significant role in Italian, French, and English literature and book arts.

>6 AMindForeverVoyaging: It's free shipping within the EU, I believe. I purchased a copy this morning and had to pay 24 euro for shipping to the US.

>8 XC: Thanks for the clarification

>5 Joshbooks1: I definitely would recommend. Type setting, materials, included ephemera, all well worth the price. The soft cover, chemise, slipcase combination is different, but in a good way.

I was looking for a Dickinson collection, considered Arion, LEC, a few others. Tallone is simple (no art, soft cover), but the quality and novelty of adding a new-to-me, fine press made the decision easy.

>8 XC: I paid for shipping as well, 24 euros, still a great total price in my opinion. The shipping was also incredibly fast, less than 3 days from Italy to Portland, OR.

>3 grifgon: I was hoping to see you chime in here, you’re the recommended referenced above.

>12 Esoterics: Glad to have helped bring a bit more attention to Tallone! I do read a bit of Italian and French, but not well enough to make Tallone's Italian and French editions easy reads. My partner is a polyglot who has native fluency in English, Italian, French, and Russian, as well as conversational fluency in Japanese and Arabic, so she helps me along through them. Still, even without being able to read a word of the text I think Tallone is well worth collecting as art objects. I'm glad they publish some editions in English, but actually happier that they contribute steadfastly to Italian printing and book arts. Italy has such a rich history of fine press, it would be a shame to see them switch to more English for largely commercial reasons.

You're in Portland! Portland has at least a dozen serious fine press collectors. I know of four copies of St. James' 1984 (out of sixty) that are headed to Portland alone. I've wanted to organize some sort of local get together but haven't had the time yet. (Come to think of it, perhaps we've already met and I just don't know the #handle! It wouldn't be the first time.) Hope you're surviving the heat wave! — I've fled to the coast...

>6 AMindForeverVoyaging:
Ah, I was looking at the €5000 edition!

>1 Esoterics: a while back, I did a post here about the Tallone Hamlet, which may be of interest:

https://www.librarything.com/topic/331303

I’m perpetually on the fence about this book. The paper binding gives me serious pause. And if I wanted to have it rebound in boards, the original chemise and slip case would become useless.

Tallone is amazing. They are one of the very finest fine presses when it comes to the craft. They are what Arion would like to be... but cant pull off the attention to detail.

Tallone is a family affair... over generations. Their printing is spectacular. That said it is extremely minimalist, and perhaps not for everyone. They let the paper, printing and type speak for itself. At the end of the day, most of their books all look very very similar. Im also not always thrilled with the titles... But, again, everyone should own at least a few examples of their work because their craftsmanship is so fine.

Note they do not do any leather binding themselves. They only do the slipcased paper wrapper bindings. IF you decide to bind one of their books... make sure the binding is worthy. Far worse to have a crappy binding on their beautifully printed pages... then to keep the original paper wrappers which are a fantastic end in themselves.

For a little piece of Dickinson... that I love and is editorially very interesting... check out the Thornwillow Dispatch volume "Without Attribution"... a fascinating little book... beautifully made...

https://thornwillow.com/without-attribution-by-emily-dickinson

>1 Esoterics: Thanks for the enablement! I just ordered a copy of Emily Dickinson’s poems.

On a side note, I am living in the Netherlands and was charged 24 euros for shipping. My understanding is that delivery is only free within Italy. But I am more than happy to pay for the shipping.

>6 AMindForeverVoyaging: I purchased the 350 euro edition of Emily after meeting them at the Oxford book fair and love the edition. Like FvS rightly pointed out, it is very minimalistic, but one of the finest letterpress printing I have seen. Highly recommended.

>6 AMindForeverVoyaging:
>7 grifgon:

As noted above, Alberto Tallone Editore has published only a handful of titles in the English language. This is a quick guide to the titles I am aware of (in chronological order):

1. Odes by John Keats (1935)
2. Hamlet by Wm. Shakespeare (1978)
3. Sonnets by Wm. Shakespeare (1988)
4. Summary (The Book Where the Rain Was Born) by Pablo Neruda (1990)
5. Venezia nei Cantos (Venice in the Cantos) by Ezra Pound (2001) - bilingual
6. A Discussion About Printing by Anton Francesco Doni (2003) - bilingual
7. Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters (2007) -bilingual
8. Poems by Emily Dickinson (2017).

>20 dlphcoracl:
I just received a beautiful copy of Shakespeare's Sonnets, shipped from a bookseller in Italy. It's one of the copies on Sant'Ilario paper, and I must say I'm extremely pleased to have been convinced to add a Tallone volume to my collection!

(I was looking at a copy of Hamlet on abebooks.com as well, which was priced very attractively, but I looked too long and lost the opportunity, alas!)

>21 kermaier:

The Tallone Editore minimalism and purity of style are perfectly suited to Shakespeare's Sonnets. Congratulations on a splendid acquisition.

P.S. The classic Tallone style is especially well suited to the spare poetry of Emily Dickinson and it is also a volume well worth acquiring while volumes remain in their inventory.

>22 dlphcoracl: I received my copy of Poems by Emily Dickinson last week Thursday. I got No 254 of 258 on Magnani paper. I don’t know if Tallone sends out copies according to limitation number, but it might indicate that there are only few copies left.

>23 Stephan68: I also received my Poems by Emily Dickinson last week: #73/258, so copies must not be sent out in limitation order - that would be a German Fine Press shop, not an Italian one.

>21 kermaier:

I am afraid that it was probably me who purchased that copy of Hamlet. Looking forward to it - will be my first book by Tallone Editore. I am thinking about purchasing a copy of Poems by Emily Dickinson in the near future - want to see Hamlet first.

>25 vadim_ca:
You’ll probably end up buying Dickinson too. :-) I’ve received the Sonnets, and now I covet both the Hamlet (grrr) and the Dickinson. Only pause is that the Dickinson new price is a bit of a stretch for me. (The Sonnets was a serious bargain.)

>26 kermaier: I am not sure if you are still looking for a copy of Hamlet by Tallone Editore, but I stumbled across a copy on AbeBooks (https://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=14120965793&searchurl=bi%3D0%26ds%3D30%26sortby%3D17%26tn%3Dhamlet%26vci%3D53778991&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp1-_-title4). The seller misspelled "tallone" as "talloe", so normal search terms may not yield such result. No connection with the seller.

I purchased my copy of Tallone Hamlet last year and has been looking for a copy of Sonnets for a long time. Hope someday I will have a similar opportunity to acquire a copy of Sonnets!

Have long had my eye on the Dickinson and decided I had to join the party because this group has a habit of depleting available supply quite quickly once something catches the collective eye ...

>27 sginkgo:
I'd found that one too, shortly before you posted, and now it's gone, presumably to one of the other readers of this thread :-(

BTW, interesting that these (presumably scarce) copies of Hamlet are going for less money than the Dickinson poems.

>28 gmacaree: Good decision. I’ve noticed the same thing.

You are all such enablers!

>26 kermaier:
I received Hamlet a few days ago - very happy with the book. It is much larger than expected! The seller was a bit vague on the condition; however, I was happy to find a book in fine condition and slipcase and chemise in very good condition. This could also partially explain the difference in price between the older editions and Dickinson - with Dickinson you know that it will be in perfect condition. That being said, I wouldn't mind if Dickinson was less. :)

I will keep an eye for the Sonnets. Hopefully you will find a good and reasonably priced copy of Hamlet. Looks like it was an edition of 525, so they must come up for sale from time to time. I will also most likely purchase a copy fo Dickinson soon - hope it will not sell out!

>31 kdweber:
Stop! My resolve to wait a bit longer before purchasing a copy is crumbling! LOL (Congratulations on the purchase!)

Truly beautiful! Does anyone have bothe the Tallone edition and the Arion Press Dickinson Sampler, and know if the content overlaps significantly?

>33 NathanOv: I can only partially answer your question but recently ordered Arion's The Sampler before the Tallone Editore. I was planning on getting both but once Arion's Dickinson arrived I was sold. I find it gorgeous in every way and it's one of my favorite fine press books. It's much more expensive than the Tallone Editore and maybe you get more bang for your buck with the latter but I think Arion couldn't have made a better collection. I believe there are fewer than 5 books left so it probably will sell out soon.

>34 Joshbooks1: Is there a way to find out how many books Arion Press has left? I wonder if the Folio Society trick - recently fixed as I understand it - entering a large number of books - works? How did you find out there are fewer than 5 books left?

>35 punkzip: Arion emailed a low stock alert out about it but I believe the ‘Folio trick’ also works.