(Enable auto generate english subtitles)
The art of amanuensis: a plunge into the past among miniatures and engravings
The ProntoPro editorial staff had the pleasure of interviewing M° Màlleus, owner of the Antica Bottega Amanuense in Recanati, a company specialising in calligraphy and amanuensis art (malleus.it) that takes us back in time to medieval monasteries and scriptoriums. Handwritten scripts, miniatures, engravings and decorations take centre stage in this leap into the past.
Who came up with the idea for the Antica Bottega Amanuense?
Well let's say that my story begins as a sound engineer, when I founded the first recording studio in the Marche region in 1978 and it was a beautiful story. Then in 1986-87 there was a national crisis that hit the recording industry hard. It was then, driven by my innate pleasure in beautiful writing, that I had an intuitive vision that led me to invent Antica Bottega Amanuense in 1988. Passionate about 'beautiful writing' from a very young age, I decided to refine my art by frequenting the greatest masters of writing of our time, from Thomas Ingmire, to Donald Jackson, to Giovanni De Faccio, passing through Christopher Haannes, James Cloug and Michael Harwey, becoming a Master myself.
amanuensis
Who are your customers mainly? Do you also work with foreigners?
Thanks to its 13 employees, the Antica Bottega Amanuense is able to cope with any request from customers, whether private individuals, companies or public bodies such as Italian universities and foreign customers. The most recent work done was for the Emperor of Japan Akihito as well as hundreds of honorary degrees for the world's greatest scholars and scientists.
With the realisation of the Bottega's new premises in the Castello Màlleus, this extraordinary art finds its right and deserved home, where beauty, extreme quality of materials, professionalism and artistic taste enrich the Marches of a reality that, 29 years after its foundation, presents itself as unique and extraordinary.
Castello Màlleus is the structure that houses the Antica Bottega Amanuense, inaugurated in 2011 after three years of work. Considering the particular nature of the work carried out within the company, the 'simple' construction of a modern prefabricated building was not in the plans; instead, we sought and wanted to create a structure that best represented the union between ancient and modern. The construction of the castle involved long and careful work, from the choice of the site, the design of the structure, the construction with innovative materials, to the study aimed at recovering the ancient traditions of amanuensis work.
In the Antica Bottega Amanuense, students are carefully selected on the basis of precise characteristics, and I personally train them for quite a long period before they can be called Amanuensis and thus work in what is, to date, Europe's largest Scriptorium. In the workshop, Amanuensis art is expressed in all its forms and declinations; miniature painting, decoration, writing, the technique of gold embossing and the production of special inks, soils and dyes, as well as engraving on stone and marble are no secret.
In fact, many are the works of such a rare art that are produced in the workshop: from the degrees that many Universities in Italy continue to have hand-engraved, to Miniatures, Honorary Citizenships and Recognitions, certificates for anniversaries and ceremonies, invitations to unique and special events, wedding invitations, engravings on stone hammer and chisel in hand, for plaques, signs and customised paperweights. The materials are those that have been handed down from the Middle Ages to the present day: first-rate animal parchment, handmade parchment paper and very fine vegetable parchment paper.
In the Castello Màlleus, it was possible to recreate the typical atmosphere that occurred inside medieval scriptoriums: by orienting the castle at 21 degrees east, it allowed the right amount of light to enter at all times of the day and in every month of the year without the sun bothering the amanuenses during their precious artistic work.
What has resulted from the mix of these elements is the creation of a building that encapsulates ancient stylistic trends while being completely projected into the future, thanks to the use of the most modern construction techniques.
Do you also work at home?
We do this whenever we are asked for a particular job to be carried out in a building, a villa or a specific location. From Tromp l'oeil to frescoes to direct engravings on the bricks or stones of the building.
What skills are needed to learn your art? How much do humility and sacrifice count?
It is a very demanding job that entails a 'monastic' dedication to work, where with the necessary humility you learn that you will gradually grow and improve. It is a job full of creativity and satisfaction for all the 13 Amanuenses that make up the staff of the Bottega, where in the silence and peace of the Castle, one only hears the scratching of the nibs and the soft flow of the brushes on the miniatures!
As further confirmation of the exceptional nature of the Bottega and the name it has earned over the years on the Italian and international art scene, the "Mondadori" publishing house commissioned M° Màlleus to write a book entitled "scriptorium" that is already an international case study.
amanuense
It came out on 11 July, with great success in Italy, ranking among the top sales on the online sites Amazon and Ibis.
The subtitle of the book, 'scriptorium,' reads 'calm your mind with the Art of Calligraphy'. It is in fact not a simple calligraphy manual, but tells of the use of calligraphy as an introspective means of inner knowledge.
Editions have also been purchased from MacMillan in London and Harpen Collin in New York and for these markets, the title has been changed to 'calm calligraphy'.
We thank Maestro Malleus for giving us this very interesting testimony
In Recanati you find the Giacomo Leopardi House as well :
A pillar of Italian literature, Giacomo Leopardi is one of those authors with whom it is necessary to deal because of the problematic nature and depth of his thought and the power of his works. He was a poet, writer and philosopher, a lone star so much so that it is difficult to ascribe him completely to Romanticism. On the contrary, for more reasons he was an anti-Romantic because he was an atheist, materialist, sensualist, and had a rigorous classical education. We have a beautiful account of him by De Sanctis, who describes his first impression of him as follows: 'That colossus of our imagination seemed to us, at first glance, to be a meanness. Not only did he seem a man like the others, but below the others. In that emaciated, expressionless face, all life was concentrated in the sweetness of his smile' (F. De Sanctis,
La giovinezza, Torino 1971). If he were a musician, for the nocturnal atmosphere of his poems, we could compare him to Chopin (1810-1849). Despite a personal history that would have been impossible for many, the author from Recanati managed to transform his suffering into a precious gift for all men. Let us approach, then, Giacomo Leopardi, great poet of the Infinite...