This year, Casa Editrice Olschki celebrates 140 years of activity. A very long time that has seen the world transform over three centuries. Two world wars and profound changes in culture and technology have not limited the progress of this publishing house, whose editorial work has remained faithful to a simple yet radical principle: the book as a tool for knowledge, transmission, and civic responsibility.
A publishing history that has coincided, since its inception, with a precise idea of humanitas, and which will be remembered and celebrated through a year of events, exhibitions, and meetings with the aim of creating a dialogue between tradition and the present and future prospects of books.
The history of Olschki began in 1883, when Leone Samuele Olschki, the son of a Jewish printer from East Prussia, decided to move to Italy. At the age of just 22, with a vast humanistic culture and a profound knowledge of ancient and modern languages, Olschki arrived in Verona and found work at the Münster antiquarian bookshop. Here he put his vocation as a bibliophile to good use, building up an extraordinary collection of Dante’s texts in just a few years, which he offered to American libraries as early as 1885.
Three years later, the antiquarian bookshop and publishing house Olschki was officially established. The business was supported by the large circulation of books from suppressed convent collections, which Leo accessed thanks to his connections with the ecclesiastical world and his perfect knowledge of Latin. In the first four years, he published twenty-three antiquarian catalogs, the third of which was entirely dedicated to Dante.
In 1889, he founded L’Alighieri, his first magazine, the first editorial act in a long dialogue with the poet that would remain a constant feature of the Olschki catalog.
In 1890, Leone Olschki realized that Verona would not allow him to achieve the international status he aspired to, so he moved to Venice. Here, between Riva del Vin and the Procuratie in St. Mark’s Square, he intensified his antiquarian activities, but also developed a deep relationship with the great typographical tradition of the fifteenth century.
In 1893, the first book with the new acronym, LSO, Figure dantesche by Giuseppe Crescimanno, was published, the first piece of a publishing project that would continue over time.
In 1987, Leone Olschki decided to move the business to Florence, which was already the hub of major international collecting and therefore the ideal setting for combining antiques, publishing, and overseas relations. The bookshop was first located on Lungarno Acciaioli and then on Lungarno Corsini. In 1902, the ex libris with the profile of Dante and the motto nihil difficile volenti (nothing is impossible if motivated) symbolically sanctioned the adoption of Florence as its adopted home.
During these years, the Monumenta Typographica took shape, a collection of incunabula that marked a fortunate turning point in the publisher’s career. The purchase of the collection by American magnate Henry Walters and his subsequent entry into the board of the Metropolitan Museum paved the way for a relationship with Pierpont Morgan, one of the richest and most important American businessmen in history.
The great collector’s visit to the Florentine bookshop allowed Olschki to become a privileged interlocutor in the international collecting world, establishing himself also from a typographical and editorial point of view. The new opportunities and prestige gained across the Atlantic translated into an increasingly strong foothold in Italian cultural life.
In 1909, Olschki founded the Giuntina printing house with the declared ambition of reviving a great typographical tradition. The following year, he inaugurated its headquarters in the Art Nouveau villa on Via Vanini, on the banks of the Mugnone River, a place of work but also a space for meetings and conferences for scholars, collectors, and writers.
During this period, he began collaborating with Gabriele d’Annunzio, a frequent visitor to the Florentine bookshop. The relationship between the two led to Olschki’s greatest typographical achievement: the monumental edition of the Divine Comedy, prefaced by D’Annunzio and published in 1911 as a tribute to the 50th anniversary of the Unification of Italy, an exemplary synthesis of philology, book art, and national vision.
With Italy’s entry into World War I in 1915 and the hostility towards citizens of German origin, Leone Olschki moved to Switzerland. In Geneva, he founded SALSO (Société Anonyme Leo S. Olschki), through which he maintained a constant publishing link with the Florentine headquarters.
His return to Italy after the war marked a structural change. The antiques market lost its central role and publishing became the heart of the business. His sons Cesare and Aldo joined the company: the former was involved in antiques, while the latter was destined to bring about an organizational and managerial change in the publishing house. The great series that still define Olschki’s identity today were born: the Biblioteca dell’Archivum Romanicum (1921), the Biblioteca di Bibliografia Italiana (1923), and numerous journals—from the Giornale Dantesco to the Archivio Storico Italiano and La Bibliofilia—which built a dense network of authors, scholars, and institutions.
In the 1930s, production grew and, in 1936, the company celebrated its 50th anniversary. However, due to racial laws, in 1938 the company was forced to censor its name and historic brand and survived only under the forced acronym Bibliopolis. Leone Olschki took refuge once again in Geneva, where he died in exile in 1940.
Despite his death and the destruction of the villa and the entire publishing business due to the war, Aldo Olschki, Leo’s son, decided to choose Florence once again to start over. Between the 1950s and 1960s, the decision to separate antiques from publishing marked a new beginning. During those years, the catalog opened up to new cultural sectors—musicology, archaeology, Etruscology—and was enriched with prestigious magazines and collaborations.
With the arrival of Alessandro Olschki, the third generation, the publishing house became a partner of major Italian and international cultural institutions. Olschki’s growth continued steadily, despite the 1966 flood in Florence that destroyed most of the warehouse.
From the 1970s onwards, the business consolidated on a large scale, with dozens of new titles coming out every year. In 1974, with Daniele, and three years later with Costanza, the fourth generation joined the company: while Daniele was responsible for relations with institutions and production management, Costanza – later joined by her daughter Serena – was assigned the promotion and maintenance of the historical catalog.
In the new century, the digitization of magazines and historical series complemented but did not replace printed books, focusing on product care and enhancing the form to make the content immortal. The gamble paid off: quality paper became a recognizable trademark, and canvas and silk flourished along with new research perspectives.
In 2024, Gherardo Olschki, the fifth generation, joined the company, destined to continue the illustrious history of the publishing house. Despite his young age, Gherardo already has his goals to achieve: to establish a new “cultural observatory,” a point of reference and dialogue with readers, other publishers, the supply chain, and cultural institutions, starting with those in Florence, which today are seeking a home to safeguard their heritage or are questioning the crucial challenges facing books.
The Municipality of Florence and the Region of Tuscany are celebrating, in the year of the 140th anniversary of the Olschki publishing house, a history that represents an essential part of the city’s cultural identity. As Mayor Sara Funaro points out, Olschki’s 140 years are not just a symbolic anniversary, but a sign of cultural continuity capable of overcoming difficulties and transformations, maintaining publishing as a lever for individual and collective growth. Founded by Leone Samuele Olschki, who chose Florence as the ideal place to develop his humanistic vision, the publishing house has contributed decisively to strengthening the city’s role as an international capital of humanistic studies.
The councilor for culture, Giovanni Bettarini, highlights how Olschki’s history is deeply intertwined with that of Florence, thanks to a publishing production based on quality, rigor, and vision, which is still capable of speaking to the present and building the future. For the president of the Tuscany Region, Eugenio Giani, the anniversary represents a true celebration of Tuscan and international culture and bears witness to an idea of publishing as a civic mission, resilient to the wounds of the 20th century and oriented towards the preservation of beauty.
Throughout a whole year of events, the publishing house—now run by the fourth and fifth generations of the Olschki family—will recount its history, heritage, and mission, renewing its inseparable bond with Florence and the cultural institutions of the region, with the aim of looking to the future of publishing and knowledge through the fundamental value of books.
To celebrate these 140 years, with over 6,000 titles published, a series of events are planned, starting with two appointments for the fifth edition of Testo 2026: an exhibition at the National Central Library in Florence from February 26 to March 14 (opening on February 25) and from February 27 to March 1, Olschki will be present at the Leopolda station and will host an event entitled “In the writers’ workshop” involving Domenico Scarpa, Lucio Coco, and Valerio Cappozzo. From May 14 to 18, it will participate in the Turin International Book Fair.
The celebrations will culminate on June 10 at Palazzo Vecchio with a day of festivities together with all the authors. In mid-September, the publishing house will open Villa Doni, a 16th-century residence in Viuzzo del Pozzetto, which has become its historic headquarters.
In Pisa, Olschki will participate in the Pisa Book Festival (October 2-4). Finally, in collaboration with the Gabinetto Vieusseux, a series of events will be organized dedicated to publishing history, typographical choices, and book design, strengthening the link between tradition, innovation, and cultural responsibility that has always characterized the Olschki Publishing House.
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