Fabrizio Govi
Libreria Alberto Govi / Govi Rare Book Llc
After graduating at the University of Bologna in art history, in 1996 Fabrizio Govi joined his father in the activity of Libreria Alberto Govi, an antiquarian bookshop specialized in medieval manuscripts and Continental early printed books. Over the following years Fabrizio has also deepened his knowledge in the field of antiquarian books, attending courses at the École de l'Institut d'Histoire du Livre of Lyon, concerning textual and physical bibliography and printing types, and at Merton College in Oxford on the study of paper. In 2010 he published I classici che hanno fatto l'Italia (Modena, Regnani editore), a sort of Italian Printing and the Mind of Man and, in 2014, together with Axel Erdmann, Ars epistolica: Communication in Sixteenth Century Western Europe, with an Introduction by Judith Rice Henderson (Lucerne, Gilhofer & Ranschburg).
In 2015 he opened a company in the US called Govi Rare Book Llc and based in New York City.
Fabrizio was active for several years as committee member and treasurer of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of Italy (ALAI) and, from 2010 to 2015, its president.
Between 2016 and 2019 he served as committee member and Vice President of the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB) and from 2015 - 2022 as Secretary of the Breslauer Prize for Bibliography.
"The ILAB Breslauer Prize for Bibliography is by far the most important and prestigious prize in the field of bibliographical studies in the world, not only in terms of the amount awarded to the three best bibliographical studies selected among the numerous submitted books but also as it is the only truly international prize in that field which accepts publications from all over the world and in all languages. I am therefore very honoured to serve for a second term as Secretary to this prestigious prize and to work once again together with the appointed jury. Thanks to the collaboration of the Breslauer Foundation and to ILAB's promotional activities, the prize is still growing and has a very bright and promising future in front of it." Fabrizio Govi, 2021