I may have dropped both quilting and bookbinding for a quick fling with outdoor gear-making, but I plan to pick both of them back up. I’m even going to take a bookbinding class in September! And then maybe I need to plan a trip to Venice, because I didn’t realize it was the center of printing and binding right after the invention of the printing press:
During the 15th century, printing defined much of Venice’s street life. As explained by Alessandro Marzo Magno in Bound in Venice: The Serene Republic and the Dawn of the Book, the city’s tiny calles (streets) were filled with the workshops of various craftsmen involved in the book industry. People interested in creating books went there to buy loose sets of printed pages, and then took them to binders, illustrators, and goldsmiths to create a volume.
The linked article talks about Paolo Olbi, a 78-year-old traditional binder and one of the last still practicing in Venice. Better get that ticket bought before he retires or the ocean levels take the city.