WELCOME TO THE FASCINATING WORLD OF “ANTIQUE WRITING INSTRUMENTS MUSEUM”!
ITA ENG
The Sicilian Region, the Metropolitan City of Catania and the International Fountain Pen Club invite you to enjoy the visit and inspire your writing.
PENS TELL THE EVENTS, FIX MEMORIES AND WRITE THE HISTORY OF MAN.
From the 'Amìgdala' to the Rollerball 'Ballpoint Pen', the collection on display represents "the first Museum in Italy dedicated to Writing Instruments". This museum exhibits all brands and models of fountain pens.
“There are authentic rarities,” says director Salvo Panebianco “we have retraced the history of writing instruments offering the possibility to evolve over the centuries”. My collection adds Salvo Panebianco, “from now on is at everyone's vision”. The Museum displays the oldest instruments: the kàlamos, the Stylus, the very first English metal nibs, and the fountain pens, from the nineteenth century up to the present time.
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The Metropolitan City of Catania together with the precious partnership of the Sicilian Region and the Panebianco private collection has granted the use of the second floor of the E4 exhibition area of the ‘Ciminiere’ for the Museum creation.
The collection on display originated at the beginning of the twentieth century, when the young man Salvatore Panebianco, the only son of Giovanni Panebianco, opened a Stationary bookshop in the town of Giarre (in the province of Catania). This activity has developed over time, becoming a newspaper distribution agency as well as a resale and later a reference point for Acireale and Catania.
The collection of writing instruments and the decorative exclusive objects include today the whole wide range of articles promoted in about a century of activity. Three Panebianco generations have maintained their original vocation regardless of the changes and adjustments of the times and personal inclination. In the last thirty-five years, his grandson Salvo has founded a Cultural Association called "International Fountain Pen Club". The latter has always worked in the construction and consolidation of our Country History through “the Pen” as the main instrument of our culture and human evolution. This activity, carried out with passion, generated a true “Collection” where the purely conservative moments create a scientific, technical and historical commitment.
The Museum traces the history of the journey made by man from a scientific, artistic and documentary point of view even in the difficult undertaking evolution of the writing Instrument.
The collection on display is precious for the high institutional dignity of the contents. In these relics and in their laborious, masterful art we find the rigorous canons of European craftsmanship. The wisdom and discipline govern the social phenomenon of art even in its formal aspects. A journey back in time permits us to find the very distant ancestors of these relics. We can discover the meaning of the writing tools and its social role when writing was only manual.
Hundreds of brands, thousands of models and millions of copies have been produced in over a century, since the first Fountain Pen was invented and working properly.
This Museum is based on three specific exhibition elements:
A collector's dream is to have them all but since this is impossible we have exhibited the Panebianco private collection thanks to the great work of the International Fountain Pen Club, cataloguing and analyzing in every detail the over one thousand important pens. These pieces have always highlighted history since their appearance and even later along with the high market historical and cultural interest.
The "Museum of Antique Writing Instruments” is located in Catania (Sicily) within the Ciminiere exhibition Center. This "Center" is a multifunctional complex obtained from the recovery of some parts of the industrial complex for sulfur refining extracted from the inland Sicilian mines. The tall chimneys were made to disperse the fumes coming from the sulfur refining furnaces and from the production of its derivatives.
The complex is divided into areas with specific functions: fair, exhibition and congress. The Center also houses a permanent Museum on the 1943 Landing in Sicily, a permanent exhibition of ancient geographical maps of Sicily (La Gumina Collection), and a Cinema Museum as well as various temporary exhibitions.
From hieroglyphs to pen drives, everything you wanted to know about writing is now here.
Enjoy the visit
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