POMBA, GIUSEPPE. — Bookseller, printer, and publisher, b. in Turin on 4 Feb. 1795, d. there on 3 Nov. 1876. He began his career in 1807 as an apprentice bookseller in his father’s modest shop after the latter’s death; in 1810 he took over its management under the sign “Vedova P. e figlio,” and from 1814, after acquiring a small printing press, he became a printer and publisher, issuing didactic and religious books.
Quick to organize, he soon embarked on large-scale publishing ventures, among which should be noted the “Collezione di classici latini” (1820–35, in 109 vols.), the “Biblioteca popolare” devoted to the most celebrated Italian classics (1828–30, in 100 small volumes), C. Cantù’s “Storia universale” (1838–46 in 35 vols.), the “Enciclopedia popolare” (1842–49, in 13 vols.), and many others that enjoyed wide circulation. As early as 1831 he had founded the first typographic society to give greater impetus to his expanding publishing activity, which he directed and consolidated until 1849. Upon his retirement, the firm passed to the “Cugini P.,” who, merging with various other similar companies, created in 1855 the present-day Unione Tipografica Editrice Torinese. G. P. should also be remembered as the founder of the Turin Civic Library, inaugurated on 22 Feb. 1869.