Filippo and Bernardo Giunti

Who is Filippo and Bernardo Giunti?

The press of Filippo Giunti and Bernardo Giunti was a leading printing firm in Florence from the turn of the sixteenth century. The first of the Giunti presses was established in Venice by Luca Antonio Giunti the elder, a Florentine. The Giunti also controlled a press at Lyon.

In Venice the Giunti press was the most active publisher and exporter of liturgical texts in Catholic Europe.

In Florence the Giunti sought an effective monopoly of music-printing. Prominent in the output of the press are bandi and laws promulgated by the Grand Dukes of Tuscany, for whom the Giunti operated virtually as an official press.

The classic bibliographic monograph, De Florentina luntarum typographia by Angelo Maria Bandini, details the output of the press at Florence by year from 1497 to 1550. Bandini was able to build upon a printed catalogue of 1604.

After the death of Bernardo in 1551, the presses continued to be operated by their heirs.