Loescher

Description

Loescher was founded in Turin the same year of Italy's unification. The founder was Hermann Loescher, a German bookseller who had previously worked in Leipzig, Magdeburg, Prague, and Vienna. Thanks to its bookshop, Hermann Loescher promoted the knowledge of European culture in Italy, with a focus on the German one. The bookshop attracted important intellectual figures of the time, such as philosophers Friedrich Nietzsche and Piero Marinetti. When Loescher's offices moved to the University's main building, the business expanded, and the bookshop gradually transformed into a publishing house.
In the first years of its activity, the house focused on books for learning classical languages, but it also began publishing titles in the scientific and technical domains, given its close ties with the University.
Between 1870 and 1892, Loescher started publishing scientific journals, while enriching its catalogue with books about Italian and foreign literature, history, law, and social sciences.
The publication of school textbooks grew in importance between the late 1910s and early 1940s, especially as regards materials for lower secondary schools.
In 1940s, the house was acquired by Giuseppe Pavia, who came from a family of Jewish bankers. He fought against the Fascist regime, and he used the resources of the house to publish material against it. For this reason, the company had to endure a number of searches: during one of these, part of its buildings housing the library and archive were damaged, and the majority of their holdings were destroyed. After the end of the war, however, Loescher successfully resumed its activities, consolidating its business in the publishing of school materials.
Between the 1970s and 1980s, Loescher put in considerable effort in innovating its catalogue of textbooks, accounting for the changes which were taking place in the Italian school context at the time. In the 1980s it also began publishing materials for foreign language teaching, with a particular emphasis on the teaching of English.
In 1989 Loescher was acquired by Zanichelli, one of the major Italian publishers, but it maintained a certain level of autonomy. The catalogue of textbooks for foreign language teaching was further expanded in the 1990s. As regards English language teaching, an important coursebook is Frames (and its updated version New Frames), by Paola Pace, Maria Carla Pavoni, Graziella Pozzo, and Tim Priesack, published in 1992.
The publication of dictionaries was, and still is, another crucial sector for the company.
In the 1990s, Loescher started distributing books published by international publishers. For example, in 1993 the house began collaborating with Cambridge University Press, and in the early 2000s it distributed its coursebooks Relay and Messages.