L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, AUGUST 6, 2026 www.italoamericano.org 12 L'Italo-Americano O p e n t h e c u p - board beneath the stove in an Italian family k i t c h e n a n d t h e r e i t m a y b e , p u s h e d b e h i n d t h e n e w e r p a n s : a L a g o s t i n a p o t w i t h f i n e scratches crossing its steel and a lid that has been lifted t h r o u g h y e a r s o f S u n d a y broth and risotto. Its exact age may even be a family argu- ment: bought for a wedding, says one person; no, it was already there, insists another. Cookware that survives this l o n g b e c o m e s p a r t o f t h e household furniture, noticed mainly when someone reach- es for it again, and Lagostina has made its name in that o r d i n a r y , d e m a n d i n g t e s t since 1901. Its story begins far from the showrooms of Milan, in Omegna, a Piedmontese town on the northern end of Lake O r t a . O n A u g u s t 1 , 1 9 0 1 , Carlo Lagostina and his son Emilio took over a facto- ry producing tin-plated iron flatware. Carlo died prema- t u r e l y , l e a v i n g E m i l i o i n charge at only 24, and the young manufacturer guided the business through wartime, economic upheaval, and the difficult years that followed World War I, earning a repu- tation for his concern for the people who worked there. The decisive change came through Massimo Lagosti- na, who joined the company at 21 and recognized the pos- sibilities of stainless steel, then a new and technically demanding material. In 1933, after solving the problems i n v o l v e d i n s h a p i n g i t , Lagostina became the first Italian company, and one of the first anywhere, to stamp stainless-steel cookware. A year later came Casa Mia, a collection designed by Mas- s i m o a n d A d r i a n o Lagostina whose rounded, gleaming forms treated an everyday pot as an object worthy of serious design. Covered stockpots from the series, dating from around 1936, entered the Museum of Modern Art's collec- tion in New York in 1958. By then, the firm had also p a s s e d t h r o u g h a n o t h e r u n u s u a l c h a p t e r : a f t e r Emilio's death in 1948, his w i f e A d e l e b e c a m e i t s president, a rare position for a woman in postwar Ital- ian industry. By the late 1950s, Lagosti- na had left tin-plated iron behind and committed itself entirely to stainless steel. The Thermoplan heat-diffusing base improved the way a pan carried heat, while the com- p a n y ' s p r e s s u r e c o o k e r , launched in 1960 with its lever closure and flexible lid, promised "more flavor in half the time." It soon became a sine qua non staple of every Italian kitchen. Television secured the pressure cooker's place in popular culture in 1969, when animator Osvaldo Cavandoli drew a grumbling little man who lived on a sin- gle white line and argued with the hand of his creator: La Linea, made for Lagostina's commercials on RAI's beloved Carosello, was spare, funny, and instantly recognizable; the character eventually trav- eled around the world, carry- ing the name of an Omegna cookware maker with him. More than 25 million Lagosti- n a p r e s s u r e c o o k e r s h a v e been sold since the 1960s. In later decades, innova- tion took forms closely tied to Italian cooking: the three- layer Lagoplan base, the Pastaiola pot for cooking and draining pasta, intro- d u c e d i n 1 9 8 6 , a n d t h e Accademia collections, where performance met the clean lines of Italian industri- al design. L a g o s t i n a j o i n e d t h e French-owned Groupe SEB in 2005, but Omegna remains a c e n t e r f o r t h e c o m p a n y ' s stainless-steel expertise: its f a c t o r y p r o d u c e s p i e c e s i n c l u d i n g t h e R i s o t t i e r a , Lasagnera, and Pastaiola, and uses specialized technolo- gies such as the five-layer L a g o f u s i o n b a s e . F o r t h e anniversary, Lagostina has returned to Accademia with a l i m i t e d e d i t i o n m a d e i n Omegna from 18/10 stainless steel, its satin-finished bodies b u i l t i n t h r e e l a y e r s a n d paired with Lagofusion bases. Each piece carries a 25-year guarantee, ample time for that handsome finish to col- lect the signs of actual cook- ing. I n 1 4 5 4 , C e s e n a o p e n e d a l i b r a r y b u i l t a r o u n d a n u n u s u a l i d e a : a n important collection of books could belong to the community and be available f o r p u b l i c u s e . T h e B i b - lioteca Malatestiana is regarded as Europe's first civic library; earlier libraries e x i s t e d , t h o u g h m o s t b e l o n g e d t o m o n a s t e r i e s , u n i v e r s i t i e s , r u l e r s , o r wealthy families. The project began when Cesena's Franciscan friars outgrew the small library in t h e i r c o n v e n t . M a l a t e s t a N o v e l l o , l o r d o f t h e c i t y , f i n a n c e d a n e w b u i l d i n g designed by Matteo Nuti of Fano. Construction lasted from 1447 to 1452; after the manuscripts were arranged, the library opened on August 15, 1454. Its ownership made the Malatestiana new: Nov- ello gave the library to the c o m m u n e f o r p u b l i c u s e , w h i l e t h e F r a n c i s c a n s remained its custodians, and the arrangement was repre- sented by two keys, one held by the friars and the other by the municipal authorities, so n e i t h e r s i d e c o n t r o l l e d access alone. City officials also inspected the collection regularly, accepting respon- sibility for its care. Novello built the collec- tion as carefully as the room, maintaining a scriptorium where scribes copied texts and artists illuminated them. Some volumes came from the Franciscans; others were commissioned by Novello or donated by his physician, G i o v a n n i d i M a r c o . T h e room follows the form of a small basilica, divided into three aisles by rows of pale columns. Manuscripts rest o n s l o p i n g w o o d e n d e s k s c a l l e d p l u t e i , s e c u r e d b y chains that allowed consul- t a t i o n w h i l e p r e v e n t i n g r e m o v a l . R e a d e r s f o u n d C h r i s t i a n t e x t s a l o n g s i d e classical Latin and Greek authors, with works from Hebrew and Arab traditions as well. Its 343 codices, pro- duced between the ninth and fifteenth centuries, remain in their original setting. Created just before print- ing, transformed the circula- tion of books, the Malates- tiana survived while other Renaissance collections were d i s p e r s e d , r e b u i l t , o r absorbed into later institu- tions, because Cesena pre- served the manuscripts, fur- nishings, and architecture together. UNESCO placed the library on the Memory of the World Register in 2005, recognizing it as the only fifteenth-century library to have reached the present intact. Visitors still enter the same reading room and find the codices attached to the same desks: Cesena has now been responsible for them for more than 570 years. The reading room of the Biblioteca Malatestiana in Cesena, where fifteenth-century manuscripts remain chained to their original desks The Malatestiana: Europe's first civic library Lagostina: 125 years of iconic Made-in- Italy cookware A craftsperson inspects a stainless-steel pot at the Lagostina factory in Omegna, where the company's cookware tra- dition began in 1901 (Image generated using Adobe Illustrator AI) IMPRESA ITALIA MADE IN ITALY TOP BRANDS BUSINESS & ECONOMY

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