Un cimelio della antica tipografia francescana di Gerusalemme. Analisi del torchio manuale in ghisa

An Austrian printing handpress for movable types, no longer in use, is stored in the Hall of the Custody of the Holy Land in Jerusalem. This press, that needs to be restored, was made in Vienna in 1860 by H. Löser Factory, and it was used by the typography of the Franciscan friars estab-lished in Jerusalem in 1847, thanks to the contributions of the Vienna General Commissioner. The aim of the first section of this article is to reconstruct how and when this printing press came from Europe, by studying the connections between the Franciscans of the Holy Land and the Commissioner of Vienna attested in the letters of the Historical Archive of the Custody. The second part analyses this peculiar model of handpress printing from a technical and structural point of view. This investigation is based on the most important studies regarding nineteenth-century printing handpresses and on the comparison with its twin model preserved in Artogne, Italy, by the Museo della Stampa Lodovico Pavoni.