Tipo Cibo Vino: Legacy of Letters 2016 Workshop

LEGACY OF LETTERS 2016 TIPO CIBO VINO
The 2016 Legacy of Letters letterpress workshop will take place at the Tipoteca Italiana Fondazione in Cornuda, Italy from July 9 to 16. Food and wine have always been an important aspect of previous Legacy of Letters tours, but this time they will become an integral aspect of the workshop which will pair cooking lessons with letterpress printing. Thus, the title of Tipo Cibo Vino (Type Food Wine).

THE WORKSHOP
Tipo Cibo Vino will begin with a visit to the Tipoteca, one of the world’s premier printing history museums, located in Cornuda, a small town located within an hour’s drive from Venice. The following day Sandro Berra, the director of the Tipoteca and a gourmand, will lead participants on a gastronomic tour of the Veneto with visits to an artisanal cheesemaker, a winery and a grappa distillery. On the third day, Cristina Colle, the chef at Le Corderie, the award-winning restaurant affiliated with the Tipoteca, will give cooking lessons to everyone. Then, Peter Kruty and Sayre Gaydos of Peter Kruty Editions will conduct a five-day letterpress printing workshop using the Tipoteca’s hand presses and “Vandercook” proofing presses.

Participants in the workshop will collaborate in the design, illustration and printing of two projects: a broadside menu for a complete Italian meal from aperitivi and antipasti to dolci and digestivi; and a booklet of the recipes for each of the dishes comprising the meal. The cooking lessons will be tied to the dishes and the entire meal will be prepared by Cristina as the final workshop dinner.

There will be time set aside for participants to print a project of their own if they so desire.

PETER KRUTY EDITIONS
Peter Kruty and Sayre Gaydos are co-owners of Peter Kruty Editions, an award-winning letterpress workshop dedicated to both artist collaborations and commercial printing. The studio, located in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn, has been featured on public television and cable television and even had a cameo role in a Miramax film. Recent projects include a gift book for His Holiness Pope Francis, a book with photographer Neil Selkirk, and letterpress contributions to a portfolio of prints by artist Ken Buhler.

Peter Kruty and Sayre Gaydos, proprietors of Peter Kruty Editions.

Peter Kruty
Peter, who teaches at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, is a master printer with nearly 30 years experience. He is best known for his innovative printing of artists’ books for Bob Petersen, Lesley Dill, Frances Jetter, Shelagh Keeley, Mikhail Magaril, Walton Ford and others. He studied letterpress printing at the University of Alabama under Gabriel Richard Rummonds, the legendary proprietor of The Plain Wrapper Press in Verona, Italy. Upon graduation he moved to New York to work with Judith Solodkin at Solo Press, a studio that specialized in artist’s prints and books. In 1990 he established Peter Kruty Editions in Soho.

Peter has taught letterpress printing workshops throughout the United States, including at Columbia College in Chicago, the Minnesota Center for Book Arts, The Center for Book Arts in New York, Pyramid Atlantic in Washington, DC and the Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina. Tipo Cibo Vino will be his first workshop in Italy.

“Crawling Walling Mauling” from Cry Uncle (2009) by Frances Jetter. Letterpress printing by Peter Kruty Editions.

Sayre Gaydos
Sayre specializes in unique bookbinding and book structures. She studied book arts at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Sayre joined Peter Kruty Editions in 1996. She oversees the commercial aspect of the business, often designing items for clients as well as handling the printing. Sayre teaches bookbinding at the Fashion Institute of Technology.

THE TIPOTECA
The letterpress workshop will be held at the Tipoteca Italiana Fondazione, a printing museum acclaimed for the depth and quality of its array of equipment, tools and documentary material—and also for the beauty of its installation. Among its holdings are handpresses by Amos Dell’Orto, a Rogers Typograph, a Benton punchcutting machine, punches by the Amoretti (former colleagues of Giambattista Bodoni), patterns for typefaces by Aldo Novarese, the Luigi Melchiori wood type archive, Bodoni’s Manuale Tipografico (1818), type specimens from Fonderia Reggiani and Nebiolo, issues of Il Risorgimento Grafico (1902–1936) and Campo Grafico (1933–1939), and much more.

Punches by the Amoretti at the Tipoteca. Photograph by Paul Shaw (2015).

Dell‘Orto handpress at the Tipoteca. Photograph by David Wolske (2013).

Display of 20th century wood type and wood type specimen books at the Tipoteca. Photograph by David Wolske.

The Tipoteca also has a rich collection of Italian type in both wood and metal. Many—such as Quirinus, Fluidum, Landi, Fontanesi, Estro and Slogan—are little known outside of Italy.

Sandro Berra
Sandro Berra, a former Classics student, is the coordinating director of the Tipoteca. He edited A story of character: ten years of Tipoteca Italiana (2006) and is co-editor of the journal Tipoitalia. A self-described “typemaniac” (one word!), Sandro is also a gourmand with an extensive knowledge of the best restaurants—at all price points—in the Veneto.

Alan Kitching and Sandro Berra discussing the wood type collection at the Tipoteca. Photograph by Paul Shaw (2015).

Sandro Berra enjoying lunch at Le Corderie. Photograph by Paul Shaw (2015).

LE CORDERIE
Le Corderie is the restaurant for the Tipoteca. It is run by Mauro Drago and Cristina Colle. Since its opening in 2014, it has garnered praise among Italian restaurant critics and made Cornuda a gastronomic destination within the Veneto.

Laura del Maso, Sandro Berra, Lucio Botteselle and Daniele Facchin at Le Corderie during Legacy of Letters 2015. Photograph by Paul Shaw.

Cristina Colle
Cristina is the chef at Le Corderie. Formerly, she and her husband Mauro owned the highly regarded restaurant Antico Liberal in Selvo del Montello (Treviso). Cristina began her cooking career at the age of 14 as a student at the Istituto Alberghiero di Falcade. She is a proponent of the Slow Cooking movement.

Cristina Colle, chef at Le Corderie.

LEGACY OF LETTERS
Legacy of Letters was conceived in 1996 by Garrett Boge as an opportunity for calligraphers, lettercutters, typographers and anyone else passionate about letterforms to study the history of the Roman alphabet in its place of origin. The tour was inspired by the famous student tours of Rome and Florence led every other Spring by Prof. Michael Twyman and his colleagues in the Department of Typography and Graphic Communication at the University of Reading. Boge invited Paul Shaw to join him as a co-leader of Legacy of Letters and the two organized tours of Rome from 1997 to 1999 and of Florence and Tuscany in 2000.

In 2010 Paul revived Legacy of Letters with the help of Alta Price. Since then the tour has focused on cities in the Veneto and Emilia-Romagna regions and added workshops to the mix. So far, there have been three letterpress workshops, two led by Lucio Passerini of Il Buon Passo in Milano and one by Alan Kitching of the Typography Workshop; and one lettering workshop conducted by Tony Di Spigna.

Paul Shaw and Alta Price in Vicenza during Legacy of Letters 2010. Photograph by Carlo Scherer.

Paul Shaw and Silvio Antiga at the Tipoteca. Photograph by Alexander Trubin (2012).

Paul Shaw
Paul is widely known and respected as a guide to urban lettering. On his own he has conducted regular walking tours of lettering in New York City, Boston, Chicago, Buffalo, Atlanta and Los Angeles. Paul has been a calligrapher for over 40 years and has designed 18 typefaces. He teaches calligraphy at Parsons School of Design and the history of typography at the School of Visual Arts. He has written about calligraphy, lettering and type for Letter Arts Review, Print, Eye, Baseline, Codex and other magazines. He is the author of Helvetica and the New York City Subway Systems (2009), co-editor of Blackletter: Type and National Identity (1999), and editor of The Eternal Letter (2015).

Alta Price
Alta runs a publishing consultancy specialized in literature and nonfiction texts on art, architecture, design, and culture. She became enamored of epigraphy, paleography, and lettering of all sorts while living in Rome. Her artistic practice focuses on collage, prints, handmade paper, and watermarks. She coordinates the biennial Legacy of Letters Tour, and is managing newsletters and promotion for the summer 2016 Workshop.

Alan Kitching and Alta Price in discussion during the Legacy of Letters 2015 workshop. Photograph by Paul Shaw (2015).

COST AND REGISTRATION
The workshop fee is $3750. The price includes lodging, breakfast and the final dinner, all transportation within Italy during the week, all museum and other entrance fees, and supplies associated with the workshop. It does not include travel to and from Italy. The workshop is limited to 12 people. Register below or for more information please contact Paul Shaw at paulshaw@nyc.rr.com.