(ANSA) - IVREA (TURIN), MAR 26 - Aid for new booksellers tax relief for bookshops in properties owned by municipalities and other local entities.
These are the legislative instruments being studied, explained the Minister of Culture, Gennaro Sanguliano, today in Ivrea for the presentation of the 'Manifesto for the future of the book' which closed the year as 'Book Capital' of the Piedmontese city which was the cradle of Olivetti .
"We must greatly strengthen the value of the book, it is a spiritual and existential dimension. The book was the memory that culture and human thought transmitted to us.
We have to regrow the number of readers, we have a moral and social duty, I would say almost constitutional, to encourage reading.
For this - said Sangiuliano - we are trying to draft a system law on the book".
Among the measures under study "a fair sustainable fee for public bodies that own properties with bookshops.
My heart aches when I pass through the historic centers of Italian cities and see successful designer stores where there used to be bookshops". Another point under study is support, "on the model of what has been done for Impresa Donna, for those who intend to open bookshops because booksellers perform a social function".
As for the Manifesto for the future of books, "sometimes culture draws impetus from the manifestos and I undertake to promote it, in the name of bibliodiversity because no culture should be denied and everyone must be free to express their opinions. And it is nice - added Sangiuliano - that in what is manifest is talk of modesty, of the possibility of dealing with others" (ANSA).