Centro di documentazione delle arti grafiche Grifani-Donati 1799

Founded in 1799, the Grifani-Donati workshop in Città di Castello combines a working printing house with a documentation centre for graphic arts. Its collection includes presses, type cases and equipment used in letterpress, lithography, woodcut and etching.

Why it matters

Francesco Donati and Bartolomeo Carlucci established the workshop in 1799. It passed through the Donati and Grifani families and continued traditional printing techniques as the trade changed. Traditional printing remains central to the workshop’s identity. In 2005 the Museo delle Arti Grafiche opened as a museum-atelier, joining the Umbrian museum circuit.

What to notice

The equipment includes a sixteenth-century book press, an eighteenth-century paper cutter, an Elia Dell'Orto press of 1864, a Marinoni machine and a Paolini etching press of 1960. The collection also includes 536 type cases, ornaments, woodblocks and galvanotypes. The workshop occupies the second floor of the palazzo della Pesceria on Corso Cavour, above the remains of a thirteenth-century church of San Paolo, with terracotta floors and timber beams.

Context and history

The workshop developed from hand presses and incorporated lithography on stone in the twentieth century, alongside bookbinding and restoration work. The Museo delle Arti Grafiche, conceived by Roberto Lensi and Enrico Castelli with Gianni Ottaviani, opened in 2005 as a space where the equipment could be used. The centre joined the Umbrian museum circuit and the Italian association of printing and paper museums that year. Its museum-atelier approach connects the history of printing with the working techniques preserved in the workshop.