Tipografia Museo: Naples’ printing museum in a 16th-century chapel

In the heart of Naples’ historic center, a small door on via dell’Anticaglia opens into a 16th-century chapel where the smell of ink mingles with cast-iron presses, lead movable type, and stacks of Amalfi paper. This is the Tipografia Museo, Campania’s first museum entirely dedicated to the history of typographic printing. The space was brought to life by Carmine Cervone, a third-generation Neapolitan printer. In 2021, Cervone obtained a concession from the diocesan curia for the church of Santa Maria della Vittoria e SS. Trinità all’Anticaglia, which had been closed for over seventy years, transforming it into the museum’s home. The chapel dates back at least to the 16th century and was originally the seat of the confraternity of the “Casadduogli” (pork butchers). The museum preserves and displays historical printing equipment and documents, narrating the evolution of printing from ink to digital.