A FAMILY OF LIBRARIANS
Founded in 1875 in Via Ricasoli 6 (in front of the Niccolini Theatre) by Luigi Gonnelli, Gonnelli Antiques Library is one of the oldest and most renown antiquarian bookstores in Italy, owned by the same family for four generations.
Since it was established, the “bottega” offered precious editions and rarities, and it was frequented by prominent cultural figures like Gabriele D’Annunzio, Giovanni Papini, Ferdinando Martini, and Benedetto Croce: famous personalities joined by illustrious bibliophiles like Tammaro de Marinis and Umberto Saba.
Shortly after its opening, the bookstore, with its adjoining room (later called “Saletta Gonnelli”), immediately became an important meeting place for painters belonging to the “Macchiaioli” movement and famous writers of that time. Artists from several different generations put their works on display in the Saletta, many of whom have gone down in history as twentieth-century masters, such as Giorgio De Chirico, Primo Conti and Ottone Rosai.
At the turn of the 20th century there were two other Gonnelli libraries: “A.S. Gonnelli” in via dei Servi 2, managed by Amos Silvio, Luigi’s firstborn, specialized in autographs and “Libreria Antica e Moderna Ferrante Gonnelli” in via Cavour 50 (in front of the Marucelliana library), run by Ferrante Gonnelli, nephew of Luigi, famous publisher and great supporter of the Futurist movement.
When Luigi passed away in 1911, his son Aldo came into the “Luigi Gonnelli & Figli Bookstore”, running it for over 60 years and then passing it into the hands of his daughter Maria Pia and his son-in-law Alfiero Manetti.
In 2000, after Alfiero Manetti’s death, the “Gonnelli Antiques Library” was inherited by his son Marco Manetti, who, assisted by a staff of capable collaborators, has been operating it since then, keeping the antique bookstore running, but also rediscovering its vocation as an auction house specialized in books, manuscripts, prints and drawings.
THE AUCTIONS
In 1880, Luigi Gonnelli held book auctions for twelve consecutive days, inaugurating an activity that, parallel to that of the bookshop, offered its customers not only the opportunity to purchase collectables at a good price but also to publicly put them up for auction.
Until the end of the 1960s, many important auctions of books, manuscripts, paintings, engravings and drawings were held in the “Saletta Gonnelli”.
After a long break of almost 50 years, in 2009 this long-established activity (registered under the “Gonnelli Casa d’Aste” brand) was revived with great success, offering customers further access to the world of collecting, a combination of passion and investment under the aegis of over a hundred years of transparency and professionalism.
GONNELLI EDITIONS
Alongside the activities related to the sale of ancient and rare books, manuscripts, prints and drawings, the Gonnelli bookstore started its own publishing activity at the end of the nineteenth century with occasional publications concerning the world of art, culture and bibliophilia: among its first editions the “Dictionary of painters” compiled by Angiolo De Gubernatis in 1892 or the famous “Compendious Bibliography of Bodonian Editions” by Hugh Cecil Brooks (1927) are worth mentioning.
Thanks to the initiative of Alfiero Manetti, Aldo Gonnelli’s son-in-law, the bookshop has published for over forty years two prestigious editorial series: “Unpublished documents on Tuscan culture” and “Papyrologica Florentina”, disseminating valuable and well-received research, fruit of the scientific work of expert scholars of various nationalities. These collections are flanked by the publication of other works of historical, documental and artistic significance, including the “Quaderni Gonnelli”(catalogs published on the occasion of the art and graphic exhibitions held in the “Saletta Gonnelli”) and the recent series “Scripts of Philologists.”
TRADITION AND INNOVATION
After 140 years, Libreria Antiquaria Gonnelli has moved to a new location that proved to be more accessible, functional, and suited to the needs of a job that needs to keep up with the times.
Since February 1st, 2018 the new office is located in Piazza Massimo D’Azeglio 13, in the premises of a small villa built at the end of the 19th century, just like the Gonnelli Antiquarian Bookshop was when it was founded in 1875.
After all this time, Gonnelli still manages to maintain and renew the tradition of a historical activity, thus offering its own contribution to the bibliophilia connecting us to the world: “amor librorum nos unit”.
