The Italian capital of the 2025 Book is Subiaco, in the province of Rome. This was announced by the Minister of Culture, Alessandro returned during the proclamation in the Spadolini Room of the Mic. Subiaco prevailed over the other 5 finalist cities which were Grottaferrata (Rm), Ischia (Na), Macchiagodena (Isernia), Mistretta (Me) and Sorrento (Na).
The city will receive a prize of 500 thousand euros to invest in initiatives for reading development.
The title, which lasts one year, was established with the law of 13 February 2020 n.15, and has therefore reached its sixth edition.
The first Italian Book Capital was Chiari (province of Brescia), in 2020, to which the recognition was awarded for its activities to promote reading as a tool to support the community through the social channels of the municipal administration during the lockdown. Then, following this, Vibo Valentia was proclaimed in 2021, Ivrea in 2022, Genoa in 2023 and Taurianova in Calabria in 2024.
Minister Giuli read motivation for which the expert jury has chosen Subiaco as capital of the Book 2025.
The project presented by Subiaco “offers an accurate range of proposals all aimed at enhancing and disseminating the ‘book project’ starting from relaunch and restoration of the great library heritage preserved in its territory until the use of new technological resources that will allow the new generations to approach a cultural world, considered mostly dusty and ancient, which can instead offer them many stimuli and surprises with methods more suited to them” .
This is the ‘Lactantius’, the first book printed in Italy, on 29 October 1465, by two German clerics who were students of Gutenberg, in the printing press of the Benedictine monastery of Santa Scolastica in Subiaco.
Then, the minister added, continuing to read the reasons for the award: “Many initiatives aimed at discovering, protecting and enhancing the many artistic and architectural riches of the territory, starting from guided visits to museums with innovative audiovisual supports such as WhatsArt, theatrical performances, interactions between libraries, books ‘talked about’ in the squares, involving teachers and pupils from local schools. All this with the important aim – he underlined – of making the long journey made by the book over the centuries known to the new generations, uniting the past and the future in an interactive and attractive way for everyone. Only knowledge of the past, in fact, can enlighten us in a new vision of culture as a form of humanity’s resistance. Long live Subiaco” concluded Giuli.
Giuli, reading is an antidote to cultural poverty
“Our congratulations go to the winning city, but our applause goes to the other competing cities, with the invitation to persevere in the promotion of reading, an antidote to educational and cultural poverty and a sure viaticum for the civil and economic progress of every community”. The Minister of Culture, Alessandro Giuli, said this during the proclamation ceremony.
Just as for “the Italian capital of culture and the Italian capital of contemporary art”, the title of Italian capital of the Book, explained Giuli, “wants to celebrate the cities of Italy as the driving force of our civilisation. First and foremost that in the rest of Europe, the cities have in fact contributed to designing the political and cultural geography of our nation, its territories, its populations, in its peculiar symphony of memories, customs and traditions”.
“The title of Italian capital of the 2025 Book – he continued – responds to the constitutional reference of articles 2, 3 and 9to the removal of obstacles, to full development of the human person and to the promotion of culture and research, identifying reading as a means for the development of knowledge, for the diffusion of culture, for the promotion of the civil, social and economic progress of the nation”.
“The title – he recalled – is awarded at the end of a specific selection” but “all the proposals presented, from the 20 initial applications to the 6 finalist cities, were ambitious and of a high level. The winning city will live up to the title recognized, with a program of events and initiatives capable of enhancing the local and national heritage of books, its supply chain, its infrastructures, enhancing the social value of reading and its vital relationship with the territory”.
“The winning project will certainly be in tune with that Olivetti plan for culture for which we have planned an investment of 30 million euros for the benefit of libraries and peripheral and less developed areas of our country. Libraries are, after all, the most widespread cultural infrastructure in Italy” underlined Giuli.
“But this is not only the focus of the project – continued Giuli – by uniting past and present we will be able to witness the creation of the first book printed in Italy, precisely in Subiaco in 1465, of which the original was lost. Allowing us to physically reconstruct the first Italian movable type printing house”.