Our History

Italian printing by hand, since 1920

It was the early 20s of the ‘900, when Luigi Bertozzi, cabinetmaker from Gambettola, began to experiment with the preparation of “martial dye”: an anti-anaemic, rust-colored therapeutic mixture that stains fabrics persistently and whose origin dates back to ancient Roman times.

It is said that the secret recipe was revealed to the inhabitants of the area by the Centurion Gambectola, former soldier of the X Legio. The elements of the mixture are simple and common: rusty iron, flour, wine vinegar, but the dosage and the way to mix them is punctual and specific and the recipe is jealously guarded. Even today.

Thus, the Bertozzi workshop was born. Families used to bring here hemp canvases to embellish with hand printing, and like that on the tablecloths bloomed prints of rich bunches of grapes, vine leaves, roosters and ears of wheat.

At that time hemp was widely cultivated in ROMAGNA to obtain the yarn and in every house there was at least one hand loom. Weft, Warp, shuttle that shuttles, were words, gestures and sounds which everyone recognized since childhood.

In the ’30s Luigi participated in the Triennale of Milan, inside the Palazzo dell'Arte, and opened his creativity to the design and colors of those years. He created his own archive of original drawings and started collaborations with artists and designers for dedicated collections.

From the second half of the’ 60s Pierpaolo transformed the laboratory into a structured artisan enterprise and opened to sales throughout the national territory.

Since the 2000s, Gianluigi has expanded the range of printed materials: silk, kashmir, leather, porcelain and glass, as well as cotton and linen. With particular attention to the environmental impact, he developed an exclusive eco-sustainable finishing technique, powered by renewable energies, which releases water vapor into the atmosphere.

Since 2005 Stamperia has been on the international market.

A challenge for the future?

To introduce Italian hand printing to the world and to share with it a culture of craftsmanship and of more than 5,000 carved wooden blocks.