Over nearly one hundred years of history, while facing epochal transformation and tragic events (such as the bombings in World War II and the destruction of the Twin Towers, just to mention two extremes), the company has always been able to keep up with the radical changes occurring in a constantly evolving economic scene, and to operate successfully under the increasingly challenging conditions imposed by the globalization process.
Many have played a key role in this adventure supporting the company with professionalism, talent, and passion for their work. Furthermore, although the technical means, machinery and technology have greatly changed over the years, as a result of the company’s continuous effort to update its systems and processes, the determination to achieve goals following the footsteps of Amilcare Pizzi, the company’s strong-minded founder, has kept unchanged.

After completing his studies at the Scuola del Libro, Milan, the young Amilcare Pizzi bought his first foot-operated platen press in 1914. To finance his investment, he used the 2,000 lire that he earned when he was playing for the Milan FC and, at the age of 23, he started his activity as a printer. The plant that he established in Corso Roma, Milan, soon started working for different publishers based in the chief town of Lombardy and around Italy. Then, Pizzi&Pizio — the new brand name registered after the typographer Pietro Pizio, who was also a friend of Amilcare Pizzi, joined the firm as a partner — became a recurring trademark on the advertising and film posters printed in Italy. The attention for the quality of the illustrations, the ability to experiment new formulas and make pioneering investment in the newest machinery (the 4 colour offset printing machine purchased in 1936 was the first one to be installed in Italy!) allowed the company to build a solid reputation and pave the way to an even greater success: the activity didn’t stop after the two plants in Corso Roma and Via Panizza were heavily damaged by the bombing of Milan in 1943, but rather increased. In fact, in the following decades, Amilcare Pizzi S.p.A. strengthened its position in the International market and moved to the new location in Cinisello Balsamo in 1965.

Show-piece of a production that collected great success in the aforementioned time bracket is the monumental facsimile reproduction of one hundred plates from the Resta Codex (Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana), a volume that was printed for Credito Italiano in 1955.

Worthy of mention as held by Amilcare Pizzi S.p.A. is Silvana Editoriale d’Arte, the publishing company established in 1948 to carry out a complementary activity running parallel with that of printing. The series of art books published by Silvana Editoriale d’Arte — a tribute in memory of Amilcare’s beloved daughter, who died prematurely — started with a monograph on Giotto edited by Carlo Carrà, and was further developed issuing a number of volumes dedicated to the Italian Old Masters, including Masaccio, Tiepolo and others. Of note, the famous volume on Mantegna is a unique record bearing witness to the frescoes painted by the Master in the Basilica degli Eremitani, Padua, as reproducing the colour photographs taken by Amilcare Pizzi few days before the church was bombed.

In the 1960s and 1970s, leaded by Amilcare’s nephew Rodolfo, the Group consolidated its position in the world of graphics printing volumes for some of the world’s best known publishers (i.e. Abrams and Knopf, New York; Thames & Hudson and Yale, London; Dumont, Germany; Planeta, Moscow) and museums (including The National Gallery, London; The Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; and others). Since then, releasing the volumes accompanying sponsored cultural projects has been a feather in the management’s cap as Amilcare Pizzi S.p.A. has become a leading Italian publisher in this specific field. The unavoidable pixel technology adopted at the dawn of the new millennium has brought some technical possibilities and high-speed printing solutions that were once unthinkable in the sphere of graphic design and publishing: the Group has been able to take advantage of these opportunities and achieve higher results in terms of quality performance, timely execution and flexible planning with a view to consolidate its reputation worldwide. Today, through book publishing, the primary mission of the Amilcare Pizzi Group is to create something designed to be aesthetically significant, perceivable and recognizable by the audience, who should enjoy leafing through the finished product as savouring a physical pleasure.