Associazione Librai Antiquari d'Italia

The Associazione dei Librai Antiquari d'Italia (ALAI), the national antiquarian book association of Italy, was founded in 1947 as "Circolo dei Librai Antiquari".

In spite of a previous attempt, established in the 1880s by Italian jurist Carlo Lozzi and his review "Il bibliofilo", the association was created only after the Second World War and it assumed its current name in 1971.

ALAI includes more than 100 members throughout Italy and its main scope is to promote the knowledge about ancient and rare books, as well as to represent the Italian antiquarian booksellers within the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB), whose it is a founding member.

The association organizes annually two international antiquarian book fairs, in Milan and Bologna, and it promoted several other cultural events throughout the past years in Florence, Rome and at the Turin International Book Fair.

The current President of ALAI is Umberto Pregliasco, elected in 2004 and confirmed in 2006.

External links

* [http://www.alai.it ALAI - Associazione Librai Antiquari d'Italia]