Printing and Publishing in Don Bosco's Thinking and Mission

Don Bosco's interest in Social Communication is a known fact in the Salesian context. It is one of the things that reinforces his “modern” image; Don Bosco was an innovator in ministry and his involvement in new technologies (for his time) is a proof of that.
But it may be interesting to go beyond the usual places and try to see exactly what Don Bosco did, what motivated him and what kind of communication praxis he attempted. It is the only way to see whether Don Bosco's commitment (and that of the Salesians) was just a fortuitous “accident” or an essential choice which is part of his identity.

Don Bosco's presence in the media world is not 'obvious'. He defines his pastoral style through his close interaction with young people. He did not want to be like the clergy of his time, hiding behind more or less anonymous structures. Don Bosco saw himself as someone who brought the Gospel by being part of the young peoples' lives through encounter and dialogue with them[1]. So why invest time, money, effort, why expose himself to so much hostile criticism and struggles in such a 'heavy' field of apostolate?

Perhaps Don Bosco's commitment to “good press” is not such an obvious fact to be taken for granted. Perhaps he felt that, despite it being counter-intuitive, his idea of ministry required a presence in the emerging world of the media. If so, maybe today in the 21st century, we can understand that it might not be possible to be faithfully and creatively Salesian in our activity without a consistent presence in the media world.

The context

The 19th century, and especially the time when Don Bosco was fully engaged in pastoral ministry, was witnessing a serious crisis in the model of Christianity which had supported the activity of the Church over the centuries. Processes of democratic renewal were often associated with an anti-clerical stance. A good number of the elite (political, financial, cultural) were on the margins of the Church or on a clear collision course against it.

At the same time the industrial revolution permitted and gave rise to a cultural revolution. Like the steam engine was for the press (invented by Gutenberg in the 15th century) a local craft model of production involved into being a true industry. It became possible to produce much larger print-runs at relatively low cost.

At the same time, this modern cultural climate led to new cultural consumers at every level of society. Desired paths of social climbing went hand in hand with, and to some extent further than the social desires that real circumstances allowed for, through cultural empowerement[2].

Whether in social-political debate, or the school, the market for written publications grew.

Don Bosco as a writer

In 1844, 29 years old and three years a priest, Don Bosco published his first work: Cenni storici sulla vita del chierico Luigi Comollo. It was not a systematic nor even a scientifically historical work. It was a tool of edification for seminarians. It could be distinguished from other literature of the kind for its chronological presentation of facts about the life of his friend Comollo, from birth to death. It did not limit itself to providing a list of virtues and edifying deeds that were more or less a mixture of facts and anecdotes.

Another detail was Don Bosco's personal involvement. He was the narrator and also one of the characters (even if more or less anonymous).

This work begins Don Bosco's role as a writer. It was the first of a wide range of writings. Pietro Stella[3] has categorised Don Bosco's writings into six groups.
Scholastic works: With the expansion of the school network (public and private), Don Bosco anticipated the need for pastorally appropriate texts to be on hand (or at least 'neutral' texts; the important thing was to counter the anti-clerical stance of some textbooks and offer an alternative view. Whether for Bible history, Church history, History of Italy or explaining the decimal metric system, Don Bosco drew inspiration from relatively up-to-date pedagogy and never lost an opportunity to be edifying. He knew his readership was not church educated or cultured people from the university. He wrote for young people who had no great cultural baggage, but with a sincere desire to increase and deepen their knowledge. This approach brought him a few problems stemming from 'good Churchmen' who supported the classical tradition of knowledge and culture.

More than being the archeologist dealing with the past, Don Bosco as a writer became a “narrator”, someone who wanted to build a bridge between content and the real life of his readers.
Pleasant writings and tales: Don Bosco classified some of his writings as 'pleasant' reading. This adjective doesn't go down so well in today's culture. Maybe the easiest way is to describe it as “soft”, simple literature. Don Bosco used the term to describe literature that was both uplifting and pleasant to read. Perhaps it could be associated with the idea of the “feel good movie”. A cursory look might suggest this as being superficial, hollow. But it functions at a much greater level of complexity: for an audience steeped in a complex and contradictory world (like ours, but it was also the case for Don Bosco's), this genre of film (but the idea could be extended to other art forms) offers a modicum of reasonableness, reasons for facing the future courageously, reasons that can sustain certain values. In the same way, these “pleasant” works offered a safe haven to adults and young people. They had grown up in a Christianity that had furnished them with little more than superficial information and Christian values, in a society in upheaval, so with these “pleasant” works these readers could rebuild a plausible set of values and Christian attitudes in an either indifferent or hostile world.
Hagiographical writings: Convinced of the educational and pastoral potential of the memory of the great believers, men and women who had radically lived their faith, Don Bosco wrote the lives of various Saints. He was also motivated by the need to react to Protestant proselytism. Here too Don Bosco was not particularly original. He was not a professional biographer. He was not concerned about being a historian. His greatest concerns was to “edify”, tell a story that would go down well with the people, show heroes in action; action that would arouse wonder and the desire to imitate, in the reader. He wasted no time in these writings with pages on doctrine or psychological introspection. There was action, movement, dialogue all to dramatic effect.
Biographical writings: The biographies of young people that Don Bosco wrote came out of the post-tridentine tradition of edifying lives bound up with seminaries or at least boarding institutions. Of rather unequal narrative quality, they oscillated between well-framed action accounts or somewhat moralistic episodes: spirit of prayer, academic commitment, desire for penitence, fruitful sacramental practice, devotion to Mary, experience of a good death.

The biographies of his pupils,  Savio, Magone and Besucco were an especially curious case of interrelationship with reality. In the biography of Savio, Don Bosco writes a “biography” but it is a rather special presentation of his educational and pastoral experience in the Oratory. It is more interesting to observe how in the biography of  Besucco, the reading of the life of Savio was one of the important moments in his life.
Works on religious instruction and piety: It is not easy to separate “catechisms” from manuals of prayer in Don Bosco's production.  He understands the deep connection that exists between lex orandi, lex credendi and lex vivendi especially for a handbook of Christian living. Today, the Giovane provveduto (Companion of Youth) would be presented as “youthful holiness for dummies”! Here the concern is not so much with anti-clerical or anti-Protestant polemic. His readership were youngsters, workers or peasants, offering them a sure path of growth in happiness and true faith.
Works connected with Salesian activity: Most of his letters, regulations, and all the literature aimed at cooperators and benefactors, fall into this category. It is real literature but today we might classify it as public relations. Such a distinction may make sense for us today but it does not seem to have had much influence on Don Bosco. See, for example, the Memoirs of the Oratory. Even a cursory reading allows us to see the quality, fluid narrative with the power to draw the reader into the story[4]. But Don Bosco is not trying to emulate the introspective works of the great mystics; he was writing something much more functional and useful.

Don Bosco's writing process

It is the 19th century that created the romantic myth of the lonely author examining his soul in order to put on a blank page all the beauty and depth he holds within. There could be nothing further from Don Bosco's praxis! According to Stella, “Don Bosco enjoys writing but is not motivated by the desire to proclaim the results of lengthy reflections and theoretical constructs”[5]. Don Bosco felt he was a populariser, not an “author”. He had two concerns: getting problems understood and resolved. The fact that he wrote and the way he wrote were functions of his pastoral intuitions; he wanted a strong Catholic culture to penetrate the minds and hearts of the young and the popular classes. He was also an occasional writer: when a certain need arose (for the Church, his own work, for the good of young people…) he took up his pen and wrote.

There is a strong interaction with reality in his writing. What happened, urgent situations, difficulties… all strongly influence his literary style.

If we evaluate Don Bosco as an author with today's criteria, he could be accused of plagiarism in many cases. It is clear that some of Don Bosco's writings were undeniably his own work. Others were written in collaboration with priest friends or Salesians. In some cases, these Salesians were really ghost writers for Don Bosco[6]. In many others, Don Bosco adapts things according to his needs, beliefs, public conventions that had pre-existing works at heart. The degree of originality of this adaptation is quite variable. There are works where the hand of Don Bosco is very strong and there are others that are no more than free translations[7]. This practice may seem strange to our culture, so aware are we of copyright. But 150 years ago the legal and moral sensitivity to these issues was quite different from ours. But if we insist on a moral, anachronistic analysis, we find that Don Bosco has some extenuating circumstances. First is his functionalist orientation: he is concerned, above all, with making available to society and young people the instruments he considers suitable for implementing his pastoral project. He is not interested in making a career in literature or being regarded as a genius innovator protected by the lyrical muse. The second circumstance is cultural. With a lot of freedom, but always obeying his spiritual and pastoral insights, he feels legitimised in taking on pre-existing materials and transforming them according to the needs of his boys. The contemporary mashup culture is a good analogy for understanding the legitimacy of what Don Bosco (and many others) was doing at the time.

Don Bosco draws inspiration from writers, his contemporaries or earlier writers, who were doctrinally solid, held as authorities, learned, zealous and, if possible, holy. The mental priority that Don Bosco gave the task of disseminating good content led him, often, to take as the point of departure for his works not erudite sources but works written by others.[8]

The preparation that Don Bosco applies to his sources is greatly reduced. He takes on the ideas or phrases that he considers useful and puts them in his texts. When Don Bosco sees something that clearly expresses his own convictions, which can enrich the work at hand ... he does not hesitate: "copy & paste"! This way of writing demonstrates, once again, the tendency to disseminate and his concern about the quality of the reader experience. Don Bosco is a very 'decentered' author himself. He understands himself as a builder of good bridges between "content" (wherever it comes from) and the young, whom he loves, with their limited cultural resources.

D. Bosco begins publishing

For much of the 20th century the publishing industry was highly specialised[9]. The author prepared his work in various fields. This was delivered to a publisher, who reviewed it, prepared it for printing, ensured it was printed by his own press or other, then marketed and publicised it. In more complex organizations, the number of people and tasks involved was very high but even in the simplest processes we can always identify four distinct tasks: authoring, editing, printing, marketing.  To understand Don Bosco's editorial process (common to many other writers and publishers) we have to leave aside this rigid scheme so typical of the 20th century and accept that many of these tasks and functions were mixed up with each other.

When Don Bosco began publishing publishing companies were not distinguished from printers. Each typographer-publisher had his own clientele and political line. Today, we tend to see typographic activity largely neutral, merely technical. Not so in Don Bosco's time. A printer-publisher might well refuse to publish an author who was not akin to his thinking. For more than 20 years after 1844, Don Bosco worked with several printers who had no explicit links to different political currents,

Usually the publishing process saw Don Bosco writing the original and delivering it to a printer to publish. The printer bore the expenses and was in possession of the material produced. The book was sold by the printer. Don Bosco had the right to acquire a good number of his books at a reduced cost.

This process was anything but romantic. The average price of books was high in relation to purchasing power. The dissemination of religious books was not a large market. The alternative was to reduce production costs. Firstly that meant increasing the print run[10]. It is true that public education policy tended to increase the market potential of (young) readers, but even so, authors and printers had to undertake good risk management to be able to collocate books produced at a price that coincided with the "sweet-spot", with the point at which the value assigned to the book outweighed the real financial possibilities of the people.

1848, with everything that was happening in Europe, was a turning point for Don Bosco as an author, a result of degraded living conditions in the country and a result of the fascination that urban industrialization increasingly offered the masses who gathered in the city of Turin. This proletariat mass was in the mood to get ahead in life, learn, add to the winds of change (or revolution). Not without conflict, press freedom, patriotic fervor, the growing politicisation of the middle and working class were the new gains. This had an effect on the market so that authors and publishers could run the risk ofhigher print runs (associated with lower costs) to bring their ideas and proposals to the masses.

The Church did not remain outside these processes. Some voices merely reacted, lamenting the "evils" of press freedom and attacks they were suffering because of it, while weeping crocodile tears for the nostalgic times of royal absolutism. But other more dynamic sectors assume a more pro-active approach. They supported, financed, assisted the more moderate newspapers which were more attuned to ecclesial sensitivity. It was in this environment that "The friend of youth. A political and religious newspaper” came into being. Don Bosco was the manager responsible. The paper commenced at the beginning of 1849, and came out three times a week.
It end in May, with 61 numbers. The number of subscribers was always insufficient to cover expenses and needed some benefactors to back it with capital. The failure of this experiment may be due to the excessive reliance of the project on volunteers, the excessive optimism as to its viability but also the doubly hostile context. The "Friend of Youth" wanted to get into the socio-political debate by defending a moderate political stance, open to dialogue and building bridges. But by now the social and ideological context had been radicalised. The radical opposition (anti-clerical) became increasingly aggressive. The other side responded with intransigence. Pro-church moderate positions lost ground. In the Memoirs of the Oratory we can perceive some of the conflicts of these years. In publishing and journalistic terms, this resulted in the loss of subscribers, financial support and unsold titles.

But this experience, though unsuccessful, taught Don Bosco something. Firstly, there was a large number of priests, either in the capital or in the provinces, who were ready to collaborate with religious and popular press at the drafting stage and distribution. Secondly, it taught Don Bosco to "separate" politics from his real interest: education to the faith. And finally it confirmed Don Bosco's place amongst the moderates in church terms, more concerned with building bridges with those (still) without faith rather than in just affirming his own beliefs.

The “Catholic Readings”

The need to maintain a qualified ecclesial presence in the press led the bishops of the Turin region to promote a publishing action plan in 1849. this meant an increase in production of materials but it still seem inadequate in meeting the real cultural needs of the target population. Keeping the concerns of the bishops but by choosing a more popular style, Don Bosco and Bishop Moreno launched the "Catholic Readings".

At the level of discourse this project was aimed at combatting the anticlerical dechristianisation promoted by newspapers and fears of Protestant proselytising. It is possible that repeated reminders of these "dangers" served to mobilise energy and collaborators. It aimed at being a collection of "religious" and "pleasant" reading material (booklets). This project did not fit into "politics" understood as discussion of government activity and political parties. More a question of popular and youthful guidance, the collection was opened for subscription at affordable prices. In order to win the price battle, costs were reduced as much as possible: low quality paper, unpaid volunteers for translation, authorship and review. The market response was very positive. What caused some problems was the distribution: the materials arrived irregularly in the villages served by a poor postal system. In addition to individual subscriptions, they also promoted group ones: by getting a local leader in some areas to drum up local subscribers. Many priests and bishops committed themselves strongly to this project.

Don Bosco as a publishing impresario

In the 1860s, Don Bosco took a leap forward: instead of being a customer of the printers he set up his own publishing business, taking control of the entire book publishing cycle.

In 1862 he made his his debut with a small print shop at the Oratory. And he began by printing the "Readings" there[11]. From Don Bosco's viewpoint, this option was full of advantages: it ensured regular work for his print shop and ensured autonomy and cost reductions for the "Readings."

He started with very basic, local equipment. The Salesian print shop grew in complexity, first at Valdocco and then Sanpierdarenna. At the national exhibition in Turin (1883) DonBosco left a strong impression on visitors with the quality of his printing and paper-manufactoring equipment. The sign that Don Bosco put up at the Exhbition tells the story: "Don Bosco - Fabbrica di letter, typografia, fonderia, legatoria e libreria salesiana" (MB XVII, p. 244).

This "technological pride" was not just a mechanism to publicise the educational quality of his works. It seems to have been something that Don Bosco took really seriously. Achilles Ratti, the future Pius XI, never forgot something Don Bosco said, while visiting the oratory: "In these things, Don Bosco wants to be in the vanguard of progress".

Circular on spreading good books

On 19 March 1885, Don Bosco sent the Salesians a circular on spreading good books. We are in the final stage of the founder's life. Don Bosco was aware of this and wanted whatever he said to help structure the charismatic identity of his Congregation.

The circular was intended for the entire Congregation, not just the confreres involved in the production of books. It was about the distribution of good books and not only their production. It had to do with the quality of pastoral action by the whole Congregation.
Don Bosco began by extolling the role of books: "I do not hesitate to call this means divine." Books in general shared, for him somehow same respect as the books of Holy Scripture.

The books that interested Don Bosco ("good books") were a mandatory pastoral tool. It was with them that he could "keep the Saviour's kingdom alive in so many souls”. This merit of books was justified by two orders of argument. The first was the need to counteract the deleterious effects of "bad books" as Don Bosco described it: "fight weapons with weapons". The other argument shows how Don Bosco was aware of living in a mediated society and culture in which the media (even if at the time this was only books) had an unheard of communicative and pastoral autonomy and potential: the book had the ability to produce results far beyond the usual channels of  pastoral communication.

It is also interesting to note the four reasons with which Don Bosco tries to draw the Salesians into this pastoral diffusion of good books. Firstly Don Bosco identifies his mission as a mandate of Divine Providence and this apostolate of good press is one of the tasks assigned by Heaven to Don Bosco. The second argument is Don Bosco's publishing success; success measured by the number of copies produced and sold, but also by the number of times each item was read. This success can only be explained theologically and thus reinforces his first argument. The third reason given by Don Bosco is constitutional. He appeals to our Rule of life. He Cites Article 7 (the Constitutions of the time): "[Salesians] undertake to spread good books amongst the people, using all the means that Christian charity inspires. Through words and writings they seek to shore up things against the impiety and heresy that in so many ways are insinuating themselves amongst the ignorant and the poor. They should address the sermons they give from time to time to the people, triduums, novenas and the spreading of good books, to this end”. The fourth argument is much more down to earth and appears as blatant Salesian publishing propaganda. Of all the good and edifying books, those of (Salesian) domestic production are to be preferred, both because this would contribute financially to the work of the Congregation and because "our publications tend to form an ordered system." This "ordered system" may be a mere reference to the collection of "Catholic Readings" but could also indicate a real appreciation of a pastoral communication project. Don Bosco is not just a loose publisher. He is looking for a systematic pastoral approach that for many years took the form of books.

A further insight from the circular is the original way he sees young people: not just as readers, consumers of books, but as true collaborators in the dissemination of good books. They can become multipliers of this very evangelising platform which is good books: "through your words and example get the boys to do the same: become apostles of spreading good books”. We find the best teaching and pastoral insights: he calls on young people to overcome a passive falling in with more or less repressive standards[12] and to adopt a pro-active stance by becoming apostles in spreading good books and discover a better way of developing their own lives through service of others.

Don Bosco finishes by giving indications of "style" for our books. For this ministryl of "good books" to succeed it was necessary to overcome the temptation to be scholarly, with complex sentences that could demonstrate the author's mastery of grammar but be unreadable for potential readers. The concern for accessible language had always been a constant for Don Bosco, even at the risk of appearing not too learned: "We do not love and do not get others to love that kind of knowledge the apostle calls 'inflated' and that St Augustine, despite his own erudition, complained of when he became bishop. He preferred ordinary language without style or elegance, instead of risking not being understood by the people”.

Summing up Don Bosco's thinking and practice

It is always exciting to revisit the memory of our founder. But it is also challenging and instructive for now.

Don Bosco, always overwhelmed by so many demands (time, money ...) invested much time (and money) in this area of communication. This investment was no accident, a distraction of Don Bosco's in relation to the rest his educational and pastoral activity. Don Bosco strove so strongly in this apostolate of good press because he realised that the world in which his young people lived was no longer the world of face to face relationships in Piedmontese villages. It was no longer even the world of simple relationships that he describes in the Memoirs of the Oratory and biographies of his boys. His young people lives now in a world where there were books and newspapers. Even if they do not know how to read them or did not have the resources to buy them, these printed materials influenced the ideas, ways of life, the very youth culture that Don Bosco wanted to evangelise.

It was his singular passion for education and evangelisation that led Don Bosco to engage strongly in this field as author, publisher and industrialist. In this area he followed the very same strategies that he had followed in the more 'normal' practices of the Oratory. He cultivated a double fidelity, in his practice, to the revealed message and the sociocultural status of his recipients. He involved others in this activity: parish priests, commited laity became prescribers and distributors of his material. He was profoundly creative when designing his marketing mix: find original solutions to overcome problems.

Basically, we can say that the educative and pastoral activity which Don Bosco calls his Preventive System, is a model he extended through his publishing activity.