{"id":506,"date":"2008-05-31T14:54:37","date_gmt":"2008-05-31T21:54:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/2008\/05\/michelangelo-in-marble-with-a-500-year-warranty\/"},"modified":"2008-05-31T14:55:27","modified_gmt":"2008-05-31T21:55:27","slug":"michelangelo-in-marble-with-a-500-year-warranty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/2008\/05\/31\/michelangelo-in-marble-with-a-500-year-warranty\/","title":{"rendered":"Michelangelo in Marble (with a 500-year Warranty)"},"content":{"rendered":"

from the New York Times<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Michelangelo for Readers With Deep Pockets<\/nyt_headline><\/h1>\n

<\/nyt_byline><\/p>\n

By ELISABETTA POVOLEDO<\/p>\n

BOLOGNA, Italy \u2014 The gala presentation of \u201cMichelangelo: La Dotta Mano\u201d (\u201cMichelangelo: The Wise Hand\u201d), a volume of photographs of this Renaissance master\u2019s sculptures, may well have been the most lavish book debut in history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Aurelio Amendola\/FMR<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

With Piazza Maggiore, Bologna\u2019s main square, as the backdrop, a short video depiction of the volume, which can be seen onwww.fmronline.it<\/a>, was followed on Thursday night by an hourlong spectacle that included dozens of costumed dancers, a string quartet playing from a stage suspended in midair, suckling pigs roasted over a pit, a fake snowfall and a foppishly dressed acrobat walking Spiderman-style up the facade of San Petronio, the city\u2019s cathedral.<\/p>\n

But then, this is no ordinary book, starting with its retail price of 100,000 euros, or around $155,000, at Friday\u2019s exchange rate.<\/p>\n

Included in the price of what its publishers are calling \u201cthe most beautiful book in the world\u201d is a sleek black case, its own stand and a 500-year guarantee.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t an appliance,\u201d Marilena Ferrari, chairman of the book\u2019s publisher, Gruppo FMR, told Bologna\u2019s mayor and guests at the book\u2019s official presentation in a grand salon in City Hall on Thursday morning. \u201cThat\u2019s the amount of time we feel we can guarantee the materials we used to craft it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Using the high standards of the privately published books in the 19th century \u2014 an ideal known as the \u201cbook beautiful\u201d \u2014 as a starting point, FMR sought expert artisans from various fields to create something Ms. Ferrari described as \u201ca work of art in itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aurelio Amendola\u2019s black-and-white photographs were printed on paper made exclusively for the project. There are detachable reproductions of Michelangelo drawings on handmade folios created according to centuries-old traditions. And then there\u2019s the cover: a scale reproduction in marble of the \u201cMadonna della Scala\u201d (\u201cMadonna of the Steps\u201d), a bas-relief of the Virgin and Child sculptured by Michelangelo when he was still in his teens. The original is housed in the Casa Buonarroti in Florence.<\/p>\n

[ click to read full article at NYT<\/a> ]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

from the New York Times Michelangelo for Readers With Deep Pockets By ELISABETTA POVOLEDO BOLOGNA, Italy \u2014 The gala presentation of \u201cMichelangelo: La Dotta Mano\u201d (\u201cMichelangelo: The Wise Hand\u201d), a volume of photographs of this Renaissance master\u2019s sculptures, may well have been the most lavish book debut in history. Aurelio Amendola\/FMR \u00a0 With Piazza Maggiore, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture-art"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}