Typography

In the figure of Cesare Battisti study and action, journalism and politics are inextricably linked. During the years spent as a university student in Wien, Graz, Turin and Florence he gets familiar with workers’ problems and he becomes interested in socialism. When he returns to Trento, he contributes to found the local socialist party and also becomes one of its leaders. On the 7^th of April 1900 a new socialist newspaper founded and directed by Cesare Battisti arrives in Trento: Il Popolo. This is a propaganda tool, one of the few socialist newspapers printed in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

By means of Il Popolo Battisti relaunches the campaign on Trentino autonomy and attacks the local administrative bureaucracy and the clericalism. The style is new, aggressive, vivid and concerns concrete situations.

At that time there are two other important newspapers: L’Alto Adige, voice of the liberals, and Voce cattolica, expression of the Catholics. In 1909 also the young Benito Mussolini writes some months for the socialist press of Trentino.

Battisti’s propaganda themes are not only linked to the socialist party political program, but also to the promotion of culture and of natural and historical resources of Trentino. The magazine Vita Trentina gives voices to these issues. It is an illustrated magazine with reports from different valleys of Trentino, which mixes interest in nature with economy, work and local history problems: this is the anthropic-geographical approach desired by Battisti.

Cesare Battisti’s wife, Ernesta Bittanti, plays an important role in the editorial venture of his husband, sharing with him intellectual and political commitment. She collaborates in the overall organization, directs the typography, writes articles and manages financial aspects.