COMINO (COMIN), GIUSEPPE. — Venetian bookseller and printer of the eighteenth century, born in Cittadella, died in Padua around 1762. From its foundation (1717), he directed the printing house that the brothers Giannantonio and Gaetano Volpi had opened in their own home in Padua at their own expense, and which was called the Volpi-Cominiana printing house, although the books issued from its presses bear only C.’s name beneath the device depicting a man in the act of shoveling earth, opposite a
The Cominian editions are famous above all for the correctness of the text, especially that of the classics, which the Volpi, distinguished men of letters, edited with great meticulousness; but the elegance of the typefaces, although unable to compete with those of Bodoni, is also highly esteemed.
The extensive activity of C. is attested by the commercial catalogues he himself published: a Doppio catalogo di libri di G. C. (Padua 1742), and a Catalogo di libri cominiani ancora vendibili, co' legittimi loro prezzi (there 1744). The most sought-after work is the Polinia of Giannantonio Volpi, published in 1741 and subsequently consigned to the flames by the author himself: only 13 copies were saved, today valued at a very high price, which the 1763 reprint and three counterfeit editions produced toward the end of the eighteenth century helped to increase.
When the activity of the Volpi ceased in 1756, C. continued his enterprise until his death: further editions and many reprints continued to appear under his name until 1782, produced by his son Angelo, who had taken over the printing press and the book stock.