The editor, writer and translator Cláudio Giordano died this Sunday (7) after a life dedicated to books. Born in 1939, founder of Editora Giordano and Oficina do Livro Rubens Borba de Moraes, Giordano became a reference among editors, translators and researchers dedicated to the preservation of Brazilian bibliographic memory. An important part of his legacy is preserved in the Rare Books Library (Bora) at Unicamp, which houses a collection of approximately 40 books, periodicals and documents gathered by him throughout his life.
According to Professor Alcir Pécora, from the Institute of Language Studies (IEL), who led the negotiations for the incorporation of the collection into the University, Giordano's most striking characteristic was his emotional connection to books. "He was a lover of books in the deepest sense. What impressed me most was his completely selfless willingness to work with them, to preserve them, and to share this knowledge with others," he states.
Pécora met Giordano when the Oficina do Livro (Book Workshop) was facing financial difficulties maintaining its headquarters, located in a former house-studio of the artist Samson Flexor, in the Aclimação neighborhood of São Paulo. The collection gathered over the years was at risk of being dispersed.
“I learned that he was having difficulty maintaining the collection. It was a huge library, and maintaining a collection of that size is expensive. Rare books require special care, conservation, and adequate space. There was a risk that this heritage would be lost,” he recalls.
Based on this concern, Unicamp took on the responsibility of transporting the collection to Campinas and ensuring its preservation. "It was an extraordinary collection and very representative of Brazilian culture," the professor emphasizes. The transfer began in 2006 and, two years later, after a process of cleaning, cataloging, and organizing, the collection was officially inaugurated at the César Lattes Central Library (BCCL). Subsequently, it became part of the special collections of the Bora.
The Alexandre Eulalio Cultural Documentation Center (Cedae) received the collection of correspondence, photographs, postcards, publications, newspaper clippings and engravings, as well as documentation relating to the Oficina do Livro publishing house and Cláudio Giordano, such as diaries, contracts, correspondence, photographs and publications.
Life partners
Although he became a reference in the publishing world, Giordano arrived relatively late to the world of books. After working for decades in commerce, he worked at the Corrêa do Lago Antiquarian Bookstore in São Paulo, an experience that transformed his relationship with reading and led him to dedicate himself entirely to publishing. In interviews, he often recalled that it was there that his desire to recover authors and works forgotten by the market was born. From this initiative, in 1990, Editora Giordano was created to publish out-of-print titles and rescue part of Brazil's cultural memory.
Later, in 1999, he founded the Rubens Borba de Moraes Book Workshop, a non-profit cultural organization dedicated to the preservation of books, documents, and periodicals of historical interest. In just a few years, the institution amassed approximately 40 items, including books, magazines, newspapers, correspondence, photographs, engravings, and historical documents.
Giordano himself used to say that the Workshop's goal was to contribute to the preservation of the country's cultural memory. Over the years, the collection grew thanks to acquisitions from secondhand bookstores and numerous donations, becoming one of the most significant private collections dedicated to Brazilian culture.
According to Pécora, the collection reflected the personality of its creator. “His house was filled with books. He knew the history of many of those copies, he knew how they had gotten there. It was an impressive dedication.”
In 1999, Giordano received the Jabuti Prize for Translation for the Portuguese version of Tirant lo Blanc, a classic of Catalan literature written by Joanot Martorell in the 15th century. He is also the author of works such as Monteiro Lobato editor (1996) Stories from the Arabian Nights (2009), published by Editora da Unicamp, Time and wine (2012) Reading notes (2016) and Antonio Candido, master of courtesy (2020).
In addition to his work as an editor and translator, Giordano published cultural magazines, organized collections dedicated to the recovery of literary memory, and helped to bring authors little known to the contemporary public back into circulation. For those who knew him, however, his main mark was perhaps his ability to bring people together around books.
“He was someone who created networks of friendship, collaboration, and interest in reading. He managed to mobilize people to preserve books, find forgotten works, and keep this heritage alive,” says Pécora.
Although he was often called a bibliophile, Giordano usually rejected the term. In interviews, he stated that he did not see books as objects to collect, but as companions in life. "The book has always been a companion, someone to talk to," he declared when recalling his life story.
