Advice and information for all the family …. Italy …..1980

 Now a little bit of 1980s Italy arrived today.

It came in the form of three very large volumes of  La grande Pratica Enciclopedia per la casa la famiglia, which translates as The great Practical Encyclopaedia for the home and family.

And they are indeed great, practical and designed for the home and family.

Tina remembered them with affection from when she was growing op in Italy and on a whim ordered them up, and as so often happens the Italian postage cost more than the books.

But they are in their way a wonderful slice of Italian history.

Added to which they are I suspect one of the last bursts of such publications, which go back through the decades, and are echoed in our house by two volumes Dad bought in the 1940s devoted to DIY and equally the Encyclopaedia of Cooking published by Meta in the USA in 1947 which mum acquired.

These and similar ones go back in a direct line into the 18^th century.

And these are only different in that they were published in Milan in 1980.

Today I doubt many people will invest in such a collection given the speed of change and the reliance on the internet.

Still, they are a fascinating thing to browse through and offer up on guides to pregnancy, cooking, DIY,  and photography.

Location; our house

Pictures; cover and page from  La grande Pratica Enciclopedia per la casa la famiglia, 1980, from the collection of Andrew Simpson