Saturday 26 January 2013

Elegant Editions: Rizzoli’s Art Books

by Scott Laming

Almanacco Illustrato del Calcio (various issues)

The name Rizzoli carries considerable weight in the world of publishing. The company began in Italy when a young entrepreneur named Angelo Rizzoli purchased four magazines. He eventually built a global media empire called RCS MediaGroup. But there is one particularly fascinating company within this mega-corporation and that’s Rizzoli Publishing, which is responsible for some of the most beautiful and well-designed art books around today.
Though the company’s roots were planted in 1929 in Italy, Rizzoli moved its publishing operation to New York in 1974. Rizzoli is a leader in the fields of art, architecture, interior design, photography, haute couture, and gastronomy. Browse the books - you will see tremendous attention to detail and no expense sparred.
One of the best places to view the vast array of Rizzoli titles is the Rizzoli bookstore in downtown New York. The shop opened in 1964 at 712 Fifth Avenue in a building designed by architect Ferdinand Gottlieb. The bookstore quickly became a New York landmark and was featured in various films, most notably Woody Allen's Manhattan and also Falling in Love with Robert De Niro and Meryl Streep. In 1985, the store moved to its current location, a historic three-storey townhouse at 31 West 57th Street, where it continues to be a pilgrimage destination for booklovers. Don’t despair if you cannot travel to New York; Rizzoli has been an AbeBooks bookseller since 2010.