From the world’s largest Divina Commedia to design masterpieces like the Art Deco bar cabinet by Cassi Ramelli, extending to the extremely rare Panerai watch issued to the Italian Navy, which remained classified until 1993. Among the curiosities were also a late-nineteenth-century Symphonium, the ancestor of the jukebox, and a 1940 Cinebox USA, a precursor to the music video. Among the VIP visitors was the actor Christian De Sica.

(Parma, October 21, 2025) – There is a place in Parma where time is not measured but rediscovered. Mercanteinfiera acts as a collective madeleine: a single object, the scent of antique wood, or a yellowed print is enough to reawaken eras, gestures, and desires we thought were forgotten. Like a Proustian atlas of memory, the exhibition hall holds the emotional maps of centuries and diverse styles: a landscape where history, art, and design converge to narrate what never fades away.

The Fall 2025 edition, which concluded yesterday at Fiere di Parma, drew a large crowd, closing with 56,000 visitors and over 6,500 buyers from around the world. This successful run offered a journey through wonders and narratives that seamlessly brought together heritage and astonishment.
Among the highlights was The World’s Largest Divina Commedia (The Divine Comedy). Presented in an atlas format, measuring over eight hundred millimeters per side, it was illustrated by Amos Nattini and supported by Gabriele D’Annunzio in the early 1920s. The fair showcased all three complete volumes—Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso—representing one of the most monumental publishing endeavors of the twentieth century. Twenty years of work went into it, resulting in three volumes, each weighing twenty kilos: an obsession with beauty capable of transforming Dante’s word into vision, and vision into myth.

From myth to the mechanics of dreams, the public was able to admire a very rare late-nineteenth-century Symphonium , the authentic ancestor of the jukebox , and a fascinating 1940 Cinebox USA , a precursor to the music video. This visual jukebox projected the first musical tracks on 8mm reels, anticipating the contemporary fusion of image and sound.

Among the design masterpieces was the exceptional Art Deco bar cabinet designed by Cassi Ramelli in Italy between 1936 and 1937 and documented in the Anzani Archive. Crafted from maple and leather, with briar root and inlays depicting bullfighting scenes, it is a work that embodies the perfection of vintage Italian craftsmanship, where form is always a narrative.

Also on display was an object belonging to the suspended time of the sea: the Panerai watch supplied to the Italian Navy (Marina Militare Italiana), which remained classified until 1993. Waterproof and produced in only five hundred examples, it is today valued at over one hundred thousand euros.

Some of the most engaging moments of the event included the tribute to Bruno Pizzul , featuring a conversation between Fabio Capello, Fabio Pizzul, and Luca Ponzi. This reflection on the language of sport and the gentle, expert way of narrating it made Pizzul’s voice a soundtrack to Italy’s collective memory. Another unexpected talk featured Don Luigi Trapelli , national coordinating chaplain of the State Police and “priest of artists”. In his dialogue dedicated to Jonah, the Depressed: The Prophet Who Challenged God, he restored the Bible to its most current value: an infinite book, a mirror of humanity throughout time. Among the VIP visitors was the actor Christian De Sica.

Mercanteinfiera thus confirms its status as more than just a market; it is a place of discovery and storytelling , where every object becomes a narration, every stand a small museum, and every encounter a piece of collective memory. If collecting ultimately means holding onto time, then Mercanteinfiera remains the place where, for a few days, time stops flowing and begins telling its story again.

Mercanteinfiera will return to Fiere di Parma from March 7 to 15, 2026.

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