I promessi sposi / Storia della colonna infame by Alessandro Manzoni

But such a high number of printed pages (some of them illustrated) posed a number of technical challenges, so the printers Guglielmi and Redaelli had to import a Stanhope press, made entirely in metal, far bigger and far more efficient than the old wooden press, especially for printing illustrated books: woodcuts enhanced the aesthetic value of books and also made them extremely hard to pirate. Manzoni decided to publish his novel as a serial: every fortnight an instalment consisting of 16 pages was sold for 40 lire.

Three elements make this edition different from the first: Manzoni removed any trace of Lombard words that had appeared in the “ ventisettana” and made it a true “ Tuscan” novel he printed the book with many woodcuts depicting specific episodes and characters: Manzoni himself giving the artists precise details on backgrounds and how to “frame” their drawings, encouraging them to consult illustrated historical documents in order to reproduce clothing, furniture, landscapes and Seventeenth-century Lombard architecture more realistically and, as an appendix, he published Storia della colonna infame (“Story of the column of shame”), a historical essay originally meant to be a chapter in the first edition which further explores trials during the plague that struck Milan in 1630. The date 1840 appears on the title page, though printing went on until 1845: Manzoni was never quite satisfied with his novel and emended it continuously while it was being printed, which resulted in a number of minute differences that can be traced to a specific “print run”. Published in instalments between 18, it is nicknamed “ quarantana” (an adjectival form for 40 - short for 1840 - used uniquely for this book on the basis of “ventisettana”, an adjectival form for 27 - short for 1827 – used uniquely for the first edition). Thirteen years after the first edition of The betrothed, Manzoni was ready to print the definitive, profoundly revised and augmented second edition of his masterpiece, the most important Italian novel of the Eighteen-hundreds. Second official edition, augmented and revised. Milano, dalla Tipografia Guglielmini e Redaelli, 1840.

Edizione riveduta dall’autore - Storia della Colonna Infame, inedita

I Promessi Sposi, storia milanese del secolo XVII scoperta e rifatta da Alessandro Manzoni.

I promessi sposi / Storia della colonna infame by Alessandro Manzoni