Trying to identify an Aviazione book 1938...

[Zaagmans]

Thanks! Another mystery (to me at least) solved!

[Zaagmans]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zaagmans Decided to bother our friends at the Archivio Storico with it... Basically asked the same questions as I asked here and sent the same photos. Now the wait begins... I'm very curious to see what they say about it... also asked them if they have it in their archives. Will keep y'all posted.

[Zaagmans]

I made a scan of a random page and this is what it looks like. Pretty crude in my eyes...



Enlarging the photograph gives this:


Still looks very much possible to be a 1938 print in my eyes.

[carlo]

First of all, congrats for this nice item! As a collector I'm a little bit jealous
For me there is no doubt that your book is an original from 1938.
It's on my "wanted list" since quite some time.....

I once noticed a copy being offered at ebay, but I can't remember the result.









To find out when and why the book has been pubished and who signed it, we should think of what happened in Italy at the end of the 30ies. The brochure is a collection of the achievements of the Italian airplanes, mostly in military use. Of course the brochure is a piece of propaganda to demonstrate the superiority of the Italian air forces.

I would think it was issued for a special occasion, what actually means a public air show or maybe for the inauguration of the aircraft plant in Pomigliano d'Arco. I would also support dretceterini's opinion that Mrs. Ruocco could be a great help. She was always involved in books and articles about vintage Alfa Romeo publications.

Best regards
Ciao Carlo

[Zaagmans]

Hi Carlo,

wow! That is great news!

So glad to see that at least 1 other copy has survived?

Do you remember if that copy also had the onion skin front & back leaf?

Best regards,
Jack

[carlo]

Hi Jack,

nice that my input helped a litte bit

Sorry to say that those scans are all I have about your book.
Interesting to notice that all copies were obviously spiral-bound, quite unusual in this period. But we should not forget that it was a kind of "prestige" propaganda item. The little edition makes me strongly believe that the book was gifted to important personalities. I think it was never for sale in a bookshop. Btw, also the bookmark that comes along with the book is another indication that it's a kind of luxory item.
Further I recieved a pm on another subject where the sender confirmed the originality of your book. Obviously it's not only on my wanted-list

It could surely become an interesting task to find out on what occasion the book was published. I cannot imagine that it was made just for fun, as a coffee-table-book or so.
Those propaganda items were mostly released to support a certain event or celebration. And we should not forget that in the times the book was made, the fascists were preparing Italy to enter the war. For Mussolini the air forces always had a very high prestige.

Please keep us updated if you find out more....

Best regards
Ciao Carlo

[Zaagmans]

I'm doing my best but the centro storico can't help me before the second half of 2009 (due to the museum renovation), Elvira Ruocco retired and I am very hesitant to contact her, and... and... and...

I am trying to find important events in the Aviazione history in 1938 but that's not so easy to find...

[CarterHendricks]

At least one of the images from your little book was used in Elvira Ruocco's article "Storia dell Atteivita Motoristica Aeronautica dell Alfa Romeo" in the 2nd volume of some papers published by the Archivo in '98. Here is another powerful image from the Ruocco article...

--Carter

[iicarJohn]

I don't actually know how prestigious or special spiral-bound publications were thought to be but I know I've seen early Scuderia Ferrari annuals that were spiral-bound, "Il Terzo Anno" coming to mind. Also, I have a very nice spiral-bound calendar from the early 1930's that appears to be an official Alfa Romeo piece as it is full of exclusively Alfa Romeo advertising while featuring many views of Rome's sights. I know I've seen other similarly presented works as well, so spiral-bound may not be as unusual as we might think?

John de Boer