This by now historic shop was founded in 1881 by Francesco Pettinaroli who moved to Milan from the lake of Orta. It began life as a stationery shop, with adjacent printing and bookbinding workshop, and within a short time it became famous among the Milanese, who had possibly been waiting for precisely something of the kind.
 
Precious papers, careful and elegant workmanship, stationery articles of supreme class have won over the people of Milan, who in all our 120 years of activity have never abandoned Pettinaroli, entrusting us with the printing of all that is most important to them: announcements of births, communions, engagements and weddings, invitations of every type, business and personal writing paper, and visiting cards of every kind.
 
In 1883, two years after its birth, the shop moved from Via San Raffaele to Via Santa Radegonda where it was to remain up until 1959, after which it moved to the present premises in Piazza San Fedele, on the corner with Via Marino. By a felicitous coincidence in all these moves we never lost sight of what was and is the symbol of Milan: the tallest spire of the Duomo surmounted by the gilded statue of the Madonnina, so that we can claim to have been : "...over a hundred years beneath the shadow of the Madonnina".
 
We are by now in the fourth generation, and the fact that the shop has always remained in the family means that it has also remained true to its origins. Everyone has brought their own contribution to the continuance of the work that went before, at the same time cultivating specific individual interests. There are therefore those in the family who have delved deeper into the sphere of printing, those gifted in seeking out skilled craftsmen for the production of exclusive articles, those who had a nose for discovering small-scale quality paper-mills, and finally those who have developed the taste for antique prints: English, botanical and geographical.
 
The printing shop, fulcrum of the firm, has always remained adjacent to the shop premises, with all the advantages this brings: continual supervision of work in progress, savings in time, and the chance for the customers to see for themselves what the results will be.
Today it is Giorgio and Francesco who, with the help of other members of the family and specialised, expert staff, keep the show on the road, continuing the input of enthusiasm and passion which has distinguished this shop for over a hundred years.