Ancient languages in modern times.
Client
Comune di Cividale del Friuli
Work
Book Design
Services
- Art Direction
- Editorial Design
- Image Production
Challenge
Cividale del Friuli is a town whose cultural richness stems from its prestigious historical origins. For the municipality, we led the art direction for the communication of "Cividale e le antiche testimonianze della lingua slovena," a project built around a booklet designed to make an ancient script accessible to a wider public while promoting the town's tourism, natural landscape, and museum heritage.
Thinking
The visual concept was drawn from close study of the ancient Castelmonte manuscript, held at Cividale's Christian Museum — one of the oldest surviving written testimonies of the Slovenian language — and in particular from the small perforations left across its parchment by age and wear.
Outcome
The project took shape as a booklet built around photographs of the manuscripts themselves, used as the core visual material across its pages. The cover, with folded flaps, is printed front and back and then die-cut: the die-cutting reveals a fragment of manuscript printed on the inner flap, echoing the perforations of the parchment and creating a three-dimensional effect, both visual and tactile. The same graphic principle recurs at the opening of each chapter, giving the whole publication visual coherence.
Impact
The booklet becomes a tool for bringing a historical and linguistic heritage otherwise reserved for specialists to a broader audience, restoring visibility to the written roots of Cividale's Slovenian-speaking community. At the same time, the publication feeds into the town's tourism promotion, pairing the documentary value of the Christian Museum with a visual and tactile experience designed to linger beyond the visit.
