Lavorare sugli archivi dell’editoria. Il caso De Donato, tra letteratura e politica

At the turn of the 1980s and 1990s, the launch of several important surveys of publishing and lithography archives made it possible to inaugurate a new line of research on the history of publishing houses, their support structures and people in the broader context of the social, economic and political history of contemporary Italy. The legacy of that period, marked by the production of archival research tools, catalogues and journals in the field of publishing history, appears to have been gradually eroded, although a few notable exceptions stand out. The archive of De Donato editore, founded in Bari in 1966, is one of the very few archives acquired and inventoried in more recent years. In this paper, the author aims to trace the origins of the publishing house, starting from the original project of the Leonardo da Vinci editore (which historical archive has been lost, instead), considering both historical transitions and elements of continuity.