Esiste il socialismo in Russia? (“Does socialism exist in Russia?”) is a book by French anarcho-syndicalist Gaston Leval (1895–1978). This Italian edition was published by Edizioni Anarchiche in 1949.

The title in red is set in the bolder Nera weight of Alessandro Butti’s Fluidum. The geometric sans essentially is Super-Kursiv mager (1930), the light italic member of Arno Drescher’s Super-Grotesk family. The low A bar seen in “GASTON” (but not in the other words) gives away the fact that it’s in fact Napoli Chiaro Corsivo. This copy by the Naples-based De Luca foundry is distinguished by a few added Futura-like alternates.

The year 1917 marking the vertex of the parabola is shown in Annonce – a design that was available in Italy from Nebiolo as Cairoli tonda nerissima larga and by De Luca as Palermo.

A 1940 print advertisement for the Banco di Napoli (“Bank of Naples”).

The typeface used is a copy of Super-Grotesk that just so happens to share its name with the city of Naples: Napoli. It’s used here in two weights and with the pointy alternate for A.

The art appears to be signed “LELLA” or similar.

The label text reads “Simonazzi Amedeo, Allievo di Stefano Scarampella di Brescia, Fatto a Reggio Emilia, Anno 1943.”

The circa 1943 label of Italian violinmaker Amedeo Simonazzi used Semplicità for all of its text. The label displays whom he apprenticed, the year, and the place where the instrument was made.

Amedeo Simonazzi, born in Gualtieri in 1891, received the first rudiments of violin making from his father Oddone, a double bass player, who was also active in Egypt and France. Later the young man, as reported by his son Riccardo, often visited Stefano Scarampella in Mantua, who by then must have been quite elderly. Simonazzi's family moved first to Santa Vittoria, and then to the main town of Reggio Emilia. Amedeo's son became a double bass player like his grandfather and also made some instruments.

Simonazzi's work, inspired in fact by the style of Stefano Scarampella, differs from it for the greater accuracy of the workmanship and, if less spontaneous, it yet contributes to an original mix between the Emilian and Mantuan schools. The model preferred by the luthier is that of Guarneri del Gesù for his violins, while for violas he sometimes also used the Scarampella pattern. [Scrollavezza & Zanrè]