Until a paralysis in 1959 prevented the use of his right hand, Alberto Pirelli noted down on loose notes, in more or less shorthand form, things particularly worth remembering from among those heard or which he himself said (or which he meant to say) in certain circumstances.

These notes were kept carefully, by Pirelli or by his secretaries, until they had exhausted their function as reminders, creating, accordingly, letters, reports, memos, etc.
Alongside the noting down of casual “interviews” and the puzzled, and later alarmed, backstage description of Mussolini’s new foreign policy, we can also find considered “verbalisations” of this or that attitude assumed by the author in respect of the premier and fascist leader (for example the refusal of the post of minister of the national economy in July 1923).

The quantity and frequency of the notes increased over the years, until they take on the pace of a diary with the advance of the War and the crisis of the fascist regime.

The book Notebooks 1922/1943 collates this documentation to which papers of a similar nature have been added, spread throughout the private archive of Alberto Pirelli.

Taccuini 1922/1943 edited by Donato Barbone
Alberto Pirelli, Il Mulino, 1984

Gavino Manca has spent his working life with the Pirelli group, holding important posts in the industrial world. In this book he takes the reader along a road of rediscovery and thoughtful analysis of a season of change, growth and development of Italian private enterprise which is not to be equalled: from the report of the Pirelli commission, an outstanding document of industrial culture, to international growth; from the extreme trade union conflicts to the transformation of production organisation; from the tragic shadow of terrorism (of which Manca was a victim) to the untiring work of research and development of new materials, new products and new markets, up to the redevelopment of the urban territory redesigned by the Bicocca Project.

“Through Manca’s writing the reader is led along a path which brings him or her to touch on the crucial nodes of our business, civil and cultural history. Never has industry been so pivotal as in the years of the life of the author, since from it a system of relationships branched off which was decisive in many areas of the public and civil sphere of the country” (Giuseppe Berta).

Sul filo della memoria. Cinquanta anni di Pirelli e dintorni
Gavino Manca, Egea, 2005

In this book Paolo Perulli, researcher at Venice University, analyses the case of the negotiated restructuring of Pirelli.

In the Eighties, in fact, the company was reorganised and differentiated and “altered its appearance”, (starting with the closure of the historic Bicocca plant). The trade union took part in the process of change via a long cycle of talks which is reconstructed and “interpreted” in the book.

The results give an anticipation of the possible developments of industrial relations in the near future.

Pirelli 1980-1985. Le relazioni industriali
Negoziando l’incertezza
Paolo Perulli, Franco Angeli, 1986

A conversation between a father and a son spanning three of the most dramatic decades in twentieth-century Italy. An intimate and uninterrupted discussion of ethical values and how they should be adopted, driven by pressing historic events and the decisions they force.

A confrontation between generations: the father, a great international entrepreneur, a personality of extraordinary intellectual and moral stature yet one who accepted his country’s participation in the War. The son, whose fervent youthful beliefs had been destroyed by the last War, finds the only possibility of moral reconstruction through participation in the partisan struggle and militant commitment to a new society.

A tense and difficult relationship which, on account of its frankness, is inevitably conflictual yet which never undermines the respect for difficult choices nor the essence and depth of feelings.

The editor of the letters, daughter and sister of the two players and a witness to their long discourse, accompanies the reader in an understanding of the common family lexicon.

Alberto e Giovanni Pirelli
Legami e conflitti. Lettere 1931-1965
Edited by Elena Brambilla Pirelli
Published by Archinto, 2002

Alberto Pirelli gives an account of over forty years at the helm of the company, recalling episodes in corporate life and personal memories, without hiding the deep affectionate feelings which link him to the company founded by his father.

A natural attachment for those who, like him, were born within the walls of the first old Sevesetto factory and who grew up among the factory workers, machines and changes in the company.

La Pirelli. Vita di una azienda industriale
Alberto Pirelli, Milano 1946

In the period from the early Fifties up until the economic boom, in the specialist journals and documents of the time the idea gained ground that industry, in order to present itself to the public, needed a style, i.e. a culture and aesthetic identity. In other words “industrial style”.

With this book Carlo Vinti attempts to reconstruct the special features of this period, comparing in particular the communication work performed by two large industrial companies: on the one hand the Italsider case and on the other Pirelli, which in the post-war years already constituted an international holding company.

Pirelli and Italsider in fact shared with Olivetti the effort of processing an own aesthetic and cultural identity, the result of which is a recognisable yet heterogeneous image, not consumed in the development of a graphic identification device and not wholly comparable to the corporate identity theories which were at the same time becoming widespread internationally.

Gli anni dello stile industriale 1948-1965
Carlo Vinti, published by Marsilio, 2007

A new anniversary and a new book which covers the most important stages in Pirelli’s history.

Time as well as the bombings in 1943 has altered the geography of Milan, and nothing remains of the first Pirelli plant in Via Ponte Seveso, now Via Fabio Filzi.

Guido Vergani, Sergio Romano, Umberto Colombo, Emilio Tadini and Fulvio Irace give an account of the first 125 years of Pirelli history via important themes in the growth and advance of the company such as globalisation, technology, communication and architecture.

The book contains all the design projects submitted in the international competition for the urban and architectural design of the “integrated technology park” on the Pirelli Bicocca land in Milan. The competition was organised following an agreement between Industrie Pirelli S.p.A. and the administrations of the Milan municipal and provincial authorities and the Lombardy regional authorities.

“The designers who took part in the competition were asked to redevelop a vast urban area, anticipating future needs which today we can at most guess and glimpse. We invited them to plan development of the city founded on the new technologies, research and high-tech service sector, while we entrepreneurs are still tackling the problems of the industrial society, the large concentrations of the employed (and, conversely, the pockets of unemployment) and mass production. This is the very reason why we turned to those who study cities and of urban cultures, on account of their ability to read the future of humans through the evolution of their habitat, in a perspective different from that of the economist, businessman or sociologist”.
These are the words of Leopoldo Pirelli in the preface to the book published by Electa, 1986.

At the end of his studies, after graduating from the Milan Politecnico, Giovanni Battista Pirelli in 1870 went on a one-year study trip around the industrial Europe of that time, seeking an impetus which could drive Italy too towards the frontier of development.

At the end of his journey Pirelli became convinced that it was time to go down new roads and he abandoned the original idea of becoming involved in an area now mature, such as that of silk. He was thus to become an entrepreneur of the “second industrial revolution”, working within the cycle of technological innovation right from the outset.

The Pirelli company, set up in 1872, was thus the product of the effort of creating a new enterprise, in which entrepreneurial skills and technological experimentation merged in a single project. Pirelli’s diary offers the remarkable testimony of the preparation of an entrepreneur and, at the same time, empirical confirmation of the value of training human capital as a resource for the growth of the company.

Giovanni Battista Pirelli.
Viaggio di istruzione all’estero. Diario 1870-1871
Edited by Francesca Polese, published by Saggi Marsilio, 2003.

00The book, an original copy of which is kept in the historical archive of Fondazione Pirelli, was published on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of Pirelli & C., giving an account of its origins and development over the years. The story begins in the summer of 1870 when Giovanni Battista Pirelli, a recent engineering graduate, was awarded a scholarship which enabled him to go on a trip overseas to further his studies.

The scholarship, assigned for the industrial section of the Istituto Tecnico Superiore in Milan, was intended for the study mainly of a new industry, uncommon in Italy. Every branch of industry, at that time, was new and uncommon, and Giovanni Battista Pirelli was spoilt for choice. Nevertheless he chose to study rubber, which did not even exist in Italy and was an industry recently introduced in more economically developed countries. Thus the story of Pirelli & C. began. During this study trip Giovanni Battista kept a diary and his writings have become a book: Educational Journey Abroad, 1870-1871 Diary, edited by Francesca Polese and published by Saggi Marsilio in 2003.