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UTET GROUP
HISTORY
WORK WITH US
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 Towards
the end of the eighteenth century in Turin, some brothers by the name
of Pomba ran a modest little bookshop in the Contrada di Po on the corner
with Piazza Castello. One of the brothers, Giovanni, had a son, Giuseppe,
born on the 4th February 1795, who was to become his father's heir. In
1804, at the age of nine, Giuseppe entered the Collegio, or Liceo Imperiale
as it was then known, as a day-pupil; but with the death of his father
in the following year, he interrupted his studies to become apprentice
to his uncle in the bookshop. In 1809, however, his uncle also died and
at the age of fifteen, Giuseppe Pomba found himself managing the family
business. But the youth already had ambitious plans: he wanted to become
a printer and publisher. It was 1954 that the editors of the "Catalogo
storico" wrote the first pages detailing the development of Utet, a long
history that can be divided into four distinct periods. The first goes
from the origins to 1849 and features the work of Giuseppe Pomba. Then
the brief period from 1849 to 1854, which is important in that it saw
the transformation of Pomba's private business into the Cugini Pomba limited
partnership. In 1855, this company became the Società Anonima Unione Tipografico-Editrice
Torino, making the real start of the Utet story. 
The Second World War constitutes the other important turning point. With
its original headquarters in Corso Raffaello badly damaged in an air raid
on Turin, Utet found itself actively caught up in the reconstruction of
a country ravaged by war. The many changes that the publishing world has
undergone since the war make it impossible to single out particular moments
as more or less important turning points. What is certain is that Utet
has demonstrated its ability to pursue, and at times anticipate, such
changes. With two centuries behind us, we can boast some indisputable
records: not only are we the oldest publishing company, but we have constantly
maintained a dominant position in terms of results. The recent spectacular
advent of electronics and new technologies has seen us in the front line.
For some time, we have been active in electronic publishing both on-and
off-line, and we are now on the net with the first Cultural Website: Piazzadante.it.
But, of course, culture has been our trade for more than two hundred years…
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