Libreria Parolini was founded in 1943 when Giuseppe Verbena, a sales clerk in a bookshop in Florence, and his wife Margherita Parolini started the business in the surviving wing of Palazzo Ghisilieri, formerly the location of the elegant Hotel Brun that had been heavily bombed. In the 1950s, the sale of books was joined on the top floor by the “Galleria del libraio”, an exhibition space frequented by intellectuals and artists. In 1973, their granddaughter Nella joined the company. In 2001, after the family store closed, she started the online business. In 2007, the brick-and-mortar bookshop was re-opened in its current physical space at 3/A Via De’ Gombruti.

Sources:

http://rivista.ibc.regione.emilia-romagna.it/xw-200304/xw-200304-a0015

Photo: Bologna Welcome