GIUNTA (GIUNTI), FAMILY. - A house of publishers, printers and booksellers that carried on an intense activity from the end of the 15th century throughout the whole of the 16th century, particularly in the three centers of Florence, Venice and Lyons.
The Florentine house was founded by FILIPPO G. (1450-1517): the first book to appear with his name is a Greek edition of the epitome of the Proverbs of Zenobius and bears the date 1497; many other Latin, Greek and vernacular works followed, and among the latter, works of Dante (1506),
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Petrarch (1504), Boccaccio (1516), Bembo (1505). On Philip's death the firm was continued by his sons, and in particular by BERNARDO (1487-c. 1551), establishing itself as one of the leading publishing houses in Italy. It also experienced periods of inactivity and crisis, from which it nevertheless recovered, and it contributed greatly to the dissemination of classical and literary culture.
The Venetian firm was founded by LUCA-ANTONIO G. (1457-1538), Philip's brother, who had emigrated there as early as 1477 to engage in the book trade. From 1489 he began his publishing activity, and from 1503 also his printing activity. He published predominantly many liturgical works (antiphonals, graduals, missals, breviaries, etc.) and also classical authors and literary texts, with growing commercial success. On his death, his son TOMASO (1494-1566) continued his father's firm with the traditional liturgical books, and an ever-flourishing activity was also carried on by his grandson LUCA-ANTONIO iunior until around the middle of the 17th century, until, in 1670, it was ceded to the printers Lorenzo and Niccolò Pezzana.
The Lyon firm had as its founder GIACOMO G. (c. 1486 - 1546), nephew of Philip and Luca-Antonio, who moved there between 1519 and 1520; the first book published by him bears the date 1520. His activity was solely that of publisher and bookseller, because he had no printing house of his own; he published predominantly legal works; the firm ceased towards the end of the 16th century.
For a long time the Giuntine firm of Lyon was credited with the counterfeits of classical works printed by Aldus Manutius, at the behest of Luca Antonio G.; archival research and the conclusions of more recent scholarship have by now debunked this legend, absolving the G. from the infamous accusation.