Curated by Isabella Fiorentini, with Loredana Minenna and Stefano Dalla Via

With the exhibition Necessary and profitable warnings to 'Bibliotecarj, and the Amatori de' buona Libri we intend to invite the visitor on a short journey to the (re) discovery of the book as a material object through the display of a very particular selection of volumes, products from the eighth to the eighteenth century, belonging to the heritage of the Trivulziana Library: some manuscripts, others in print, some in paper, others in parchment - each of which is witness to a particular form of decay that has damaged the physical support but has left intact or at least partially legible the textual content. The pages stained by water and fire, the leather bindings worn by woodworms, the surviving parchment of an ancient Hebrew Bible placed to protect a Latin text: these are just some of the objects chosen for visitors, adults and children , can exercise their gaze and mind in observing the structure and materials of the book, as we know it in the West from the first centuries of the Common Era. The fil rouge of the story is represented by the entries of a small dictionary in the form of warnings arranged in alphabetical order that Gaetano Volpi (1689-1761), scholarly publisher in 18th century Padua, published in 1756 for the benefit of all the "amatori de ' good books »in order to warn against bad habits of conservation of volumes and careless printing and binding practices. Historical Civic Archive and Trivulziana Library AN EXHIBITION FOR EVERYONE The didactic apparatus of the exhibition have been developed by applying two different linguistic registers (a path for children runs parallel to the main didactic path), always respecting the technical-scientific correctness of the contents but normally giving up to use specialized terminology, if not adequately explained in a popular form. The exhibition also includes a diorama dedicated to the materials of the book and some multimedia contents. During the exhibition period there will be meetings with the curators, guided tours for adults and workshops and animated visits for children and teenagers, both free and for a fee, as part of the educational program of the Sforzesco Castle. The headquarters and the facilities are all accessible to the physically disabled. The texts intended for children have been developed in a highly readable font, to meet the needs of all categories of young readers. The sound contents are also presented in textual form and the didactic diorama offers points of interest for a tactile experience.