Libreria Piani

Libreria Piani, named after its founder, Piero Piani, has been active in the antique, second-hand and out-of-print book market for over forty years and is a member of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of Italy. Founded as Libreria Naturalistica, specializing in the natural sciences, it has subsequently transformed into a large 'generalist' bookstore, with extensive collections in the most varied areas of culture and paper collecting, from original photographs to postcards, from notices to newspapers and magazines (as if to say: 'Libraria sum, librarii nihil a me alienum puto'). It has hundreds of catalogs to its credit, among which some thematic ones are still considered very useful bibliographies (such as Brigantaggio & Co. or Civiltà del circo, both signed by Piero Piani).

The example of some large English bookstores and the inexhaustible hunger for space led Libreria Piani to leave the center of Bologna (its last location was in Piazza San Simone, in the Jewish Ghetto) and move in 2012 to an ancient 11th-century Benedictine abbey in the Lavino valley, formerly entrusted by papal commendation to Ludovico Beccadelli (1501-1572) and temporary home of Giovanni Della Casa, who was a pupil and distinguished guest of the humanist prelate.

In 2021, Libreria Piani took over Bologna's historic Libreria Galliera (in the building known as Casa Argelati), which was already active a century ago and long owned by bookseller and publisher Arnaldo Forni.