Coming from a family of small bourgeois merchants Forlivesi, the brothers Fabbri started with little more than a love for art and culture inherited from their father Ottavio Fabbri. The eldest, Giovanni, just graduated from medical school joined the partisan of the Val d'Ossola. After the war, preferring books to the medical profession, he decided to take up a career of the editor, managing to involve his brothers. The "Fratelli Fabbri Editori" found immediate success printing text books for schools and, later, became the leading publisher in this area. They took a leap in the quality of printing to publish regular, large classical works such as The Divine Comedy and The Bible. The approval of the public encouraged them, and at the end of the fifties remain in the history of publishing with works such as "Masterpieces in the Centuries" and, particularly, "The Masters of Color.".
The 1960s
In the 1960s "Fratelli Fabbri Editori" published :it:Conoscere|Conoscere, an illustrated encyclopedia for children that entered the homes of millions of Italians. The encyclopedia was sold in bound volumes, with payment by installments. During those years, the publishing house sold approximately a billion and a half books, published in dozens of countries with translations into 14 languages, including Hindi, Urdu, Afrikaans, Turkish and Bulgarian. They were also the first Italian publisher to market multimedia products; producing the new series "The Stories of Sound" and "The History of Music, which combines the book and the record, addressing issues unknown at the time. For example, for "The History of Music" in order to fall within the standard packaging industry, they commissioned Philips Records to produce 10 million of the LP Special, of 20 centimeters in diameter. Towards the end of the sixties, due to the saturation of the market and social unrest, the brothers Dino and Rino sold their shares to engage in other activities abroad, thwarted by the refusal of the elder brother.
Fabbri Editori was part of Gruppo Rizzoli Corriere della Sera and continues to be active in the publishing of textbooks and publications. RCS' book businesses, including Fabbri, were acquired Arnoldo Mondadori Editore in 2016. With the spread of 'home-video Fabbri concluded agreements that allow it to distribute through the network of kiosks a monographic series on actors and collections of the movies of Alberto Sordi and Gilberto Govi, directors and genres of film.