“Un rito di carta. Libri e «librarieta» nella comunicazione delle imprese italiane”

This contribution sets out to frame the phenomenon of company books and its evolution in Italy in the context of corporate communication and publishing. Corporate history books, biographies, and other kinds of editions are promoted by organizations to preserve and communicate their own corporate history, identity, and heritage to stakeholders. Despite representing a distinctive and long-standing publishing genre, corporate monographs remain a singular case of “books-no books” affected by a fundamental inattention and prejudice about their literary and documentary quality. A focused review of interdisciplinary studies retraces both the historic and contemporary profiles of this sector in the Italian case, to focus on the major publishing models and trends. Secondly, the role of book is explored as a unique context of corporate self-communication, enabling the biographic and reflective ritual of “bookhood” – the cultural experience of “making books” or even “becoming a book” – with relevant impacts on companies’ culture and heritage and no equal by other communication tools and contexts.