Scriptorium Foroiuliense

The Scriptorium Foroiuliense in San Daniele del Friuli brings together book arts, calligraphy and historical collections within the cloister of a former Dominican convent. Its Opificium Librorum demonstrates processes associated with the making of pre-industrial books.

Why it matters

Founded in 2012 as a cultural association and active in San Daniele since 2015, the Scriptorium teaches and preserves calligraphy and bookmaking traditions. Its Opificium Librorum presents the materials and techniques of manuscript production, while the institution's collections document the history of writing and printing.

What to notice

The workshop brings together parchment, rag paper, quills, iron-gall ink, miniature painting and bookbinding. The library includes the Fondo Ascoli, with more than three thousand bibliographic units, including writing manuals and texts on the history of writing. The Museo Prefilatelico Friulano preserves roughly 2,500 documents from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, such as proclamations, edicts and letters created before the introduction of postal stamps.

Context and history

After its early years at the castle of Ragogna, the Scriptorium moved to the cloister of the former Dominican monastery beside the Madonna di Strada sanctuary. It now operates as a foundation, bringing together the Opificium Librorum, Biblioteca della Scrittura and Museo Prefilatelico Friulano. Its work includes reproductions of manuscripts from the Guarneriana, among them the Dante Guarneriano issued in 2021, and reproductions of pages from the Gutenberg Bible based on digitised material from the Bodleian Library.