La tipografica professione di Nicolò Capaci

The Author studies an unknown manual for printing dated 1820 but written earlier. Technical manuals of the "Ancien Régime Typographique" often survived only in manuscript form; they belong to a very rare literary genre, precious and hard to find in European Archives and Libraries. This manuscript text , now in the National Library of Malta, was written by an Italian printer working, in the Eighteenth century, in the small island under the protection of the Knights. The Author traces and recreates the history of that printer, the equipment of his printing shop. She presents and analyses, with a critical apparatus, the major maltese editions and their paratextual elements. The original document is transcribed in full and commented with technical explanations for unusual words; the study encompasses also comparing with other manuals that leads to a social historical analysis of the text. The document is valuable and classified as an element and important witness for the construction of Printers' professional identity in the Modern Age.