The Paravia educational tables of the late nineteenth century: a scholastic, artistic and documentary tool

Subjects

1. Rural and farm tools
2. The farmhouse courtyard
3. The household goods
4. Hemp processing
5. The tannery
6. The typography
7. The printing house
8. The mechanical workshop
9. The saddler’s shop
10. The blacksmith’s shop
11. The tinsmith’s shop
12. The potter’s shop
13. The fish

Authors: G. Roda, Pietro Voglino and Virginia Bongini, Renzo Cannella, R. Trevisani

Period: last quarter of the 19th century, beginning of the 20th century

Technique: color lithographic printing

Measurements: 103×73 cm

Among the objects that most clearly reveal the evolution of Italian material culture and teaching are the wall tablets: instruments used in schools starting in the 1870s and which remained in use, with varying degrees of success, until the mid-twentieth century.

Designed to accompany the teacher’s lesson through images, these panels depicted scenes of everyday life, trades, agricultural and artisanal activities, historical events, naturalistic subjects, and moral and civic themes. They were, in effect, one of the first visual tools of the modern school: not simply classroom decorations, but learning tools designed to make the educational process clearer, more immediate, and more engaging.

Analysis of the historical and educational context

The evaluation of these plates could not be limited to mere material observation. To understand their value, it was necessary to place them within the broader context of nineteenth-century pedagogy and the development of school publishing.

In the 19th century, in the wake of Enlightenment reflections and the spread of illustrated textbooks, images became a fundamental teaching tool. The principle of “objective teaching” required students to learn not only by listening, but also by directly observing what the teacher explained.

For this reason, many plates featured minimal or no text at all. The image, appropriately illustrated by the teacher, was intended to stimulate intuition, curiosity, and reasoning. The plate thus became a sort of teaching framework: vibrant in color, clear in composition, and effective in capturing the students’ attention.

Paravia and the production of school tables

In Italy, publishers such as Paravia, Vallardi, Mondadori, Fabbri, and other smaller publishers played a key role in the dissemination of this material. The Paravia plates, in particular, stood out for their graphic quality, the variety of themes covered, and their focus on educational purposes.

Between 1870 and 1920, the production of educational plates experienced a notable expansion. While in the early decades of the 19th century, the subjects were primarily related to elementary school education—food, tools, pets, crafts, seasons—over time, the content expanded to encompass numerous branches of knowledge: natural history, arts and crafts, technology, industry, geography, ethnography, inventions, and history.

This diffusion was also made possible by advances in printing techniques. Lithography and, later, chromolithography made it possible to produce large-format, sharp, colorful images suitable for collective viewing in classrooms.

Cultural value and antiquarian interest

These plates are of twofold interest today. On the one hand, they provide significant evidence of the history of schooling, pedagogy, and visual communication. On the other, they possess an aesthetic quality that makes them prized on the antiques and collectors’ markets.

Educational plates from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries are increasingly sought after for their ability to combine scientific rigor, illustrative clarity, and decorative appeal. Subjects related to crafts, applied arts, rural life, and production techniques are particularly interesting because they document activities and knowledge that have now partly disappeared or been profoundly transformed.

The outcome of the assignment

The assignment, thanks to the deed of donation by Dr. Tancredi Vigliardi Paravia, was concluded by identifying the collections of the “Arts and Crafts of the Past” Museum in Cisterna d’Asti as its destination.

These materials, originally intended for classrooms, now find a new home within the museum, where they can be read as documents of collective memory. Their presence helps illustrate the relationship between school, work, craftsmanship, and society, offering the public a firsthand look at an educational and visual heritage that has shaped generations of students.

Paravia’s educational panels thus retain a value that is simultaneously cultural, aesthetic, and testimonial. Nearly one hundred and fifty years after their conception, they continue to amaze with the quality of their images, their descriptive precision, and their ability to evoke a world in which knowledge also passed through the silent power of figures.

In this specific case, the core examined takes on an even more coherent meaning in the “Arts and Crafts of the Past” Museum in Cisterna d’Asti, where the Paravia panels directly interact with the museum’s mission.