During the Renaissance, Italy’s municipalities and states were shaken by continuous, important political upheavals. Despite the turbulent period, production at the Fabriano paper mills did not stop, and in fact increased in volume and quality. Along with archival finds, papers, watermarks, and various documents, evidence of this extraordinary phase in the life of the paper mill comes from a letter written by Michelangelo Buonarroti who was active in the peninsula during that time. The content is jovial, almost comical, and the imprint of the Fabriano Paper Mills remains …

“Nicholò io non poteoti iersera alchanto de bischeri risponderti resoluto chome era l’animo mio di fare perché sendo cholui per chi voi mi parlavi presente e forse avendogli voi dato qualche speranza di quello che lui da me desiderava dubitai non vi fare vergognia e che io mischottessi più volte non dissi pero recisamente quello che arei dicto avoi solo e ora per questa ve lo fo intendere e questo è che io non posso pigliare nessuno gharzone per un certo rispecto a tanto mancho sendo forestiero però io vi dissi che non ero per far niente infra dua o tre mesi perchè epigliassi partito cioè perchè lamicho nostro non lasciassi qua el figliolo socto la mia speranza e lui non la intese marrispose che se io lovedessi che nocte in chasa co(n) me lo chaccerei nellecto io vidicho che rinuntio a questa chonsolatione e non la voglio torre allui però per mio chonto voi lo licentierete e stimo lo saprete fare e farete in modo che e(gli) senandraà chon tucto a voi mi rachomando

Yours, Michelagniolo in Florence”

«Why do I draw the characters in my films? It’s a way to start looking the film in the face, to see what kind it is, the attempt to stare at something, albeit tiny, bordering on insignificant, but which still seems to me to have something to do with the film, and that subtly speaks to me about itself». These are the words of 5-time Oscar-winning Federico Fellini. And, in a healthy exchange of excellence, it was often Fabriano paper that hosted this master’s drawings …

The private correspondence between D’Annunzio and Olga Brunner Levi, pianist and singer from Trieste, in 1916 took place on a special type of paper.
The sheets not only show the passion between the two, but also the presence of Fabriano paper inside the desk of the author of the Halcyon, watermarked and with the initials PMF Pietro Miliani Fabriano.