Show SMALLEST BOOK IN THE WORLD italy has succeeded in producing the smallest book in the world says the philadelphia bulletin As far back as 1850 the well known historian cesare cantu together with the publisher gnocchi of milan undertook to issue an edition of the divine commedia of dante in the smallest known characters but they were unsuccessful although the gnocchi house tried for twenty years in 1870 the brothers and padua took over thia work and were successful in producing a tiny book of pages millimeters in size with 31 lines in each page which book they claimed as the smallest in the world and in fact was of less dimensions than the officio olum ot of the celebrated giunti millimeters printed in venice in 1519 and a select de tate printed in leyden ley den in 1601 but another victory has been scored for the modern italian typographical art by the brothers who have made the booklet one third smaller than the dante possessed by M george Sa salomon lomonof of paris who solemnly declared himself the possessor of the smallest book in the world his book was printed in holland in 1647 is millimeters but with such large letters that only a few words go 90 to each page and so it loses its likeness to a book the house has made within the same dimensions a teal real book of pages each page with nine lines and 95 to letters being an unpublished letter of galileo to mine cristine of lorraine in 1615 anyone who sees this masterpiece of the art of printing cannot help being astonished at the smallness exactness and elegance of the characters |