A photograph of Michelangelo’s ‘‘Pieta’’ by Aurelio Amendola from ‘‘Michelangelo: La Dotta Mano,’’ below, a book that costs $155,000.

By ELISABETTA POVOLEDO

BOLOGNA, Italy - The gala presentation of “Michelangelo: La Dotta Mano” (“Michelangelo: The Wise Hand”), a volume of photographs of this Renaissance master’s sculptures, may well have been the most lavish book debut in history.
With Piazza Maggiore, Bologna’s main square, as the backdrop, a short video depiction of the volume, which can be seen on www.
fmronline.it, was followed May 29 by an hourlong spectacle that included dozens of costumed dancers, a string quartet playing from a stage suspended in midair, suckling pigs roasted over a pit, a fake snowfall and an elegantly dressed acrobat walking Spiderman-style up the facade of San Petronio, the city’s cathedral.
But then, this is no ordinary book, starting with its retail price of 100,000 euros, or around $155,000. Included in the price of what its publishers are calling “the most beautiful book in the world” is a sleek black case, its own stand and a 500-year guarantee.
“This isn’t an appliance,” Marilena Ferrari, chairman of the book’s publisher, Gruppo FMR, told Bologna’s mayor and guests at the book’s official presentation in a grand salon in City Hall on the morning of May 29. “That’s the amount of time we feel we can guarantee the materials we used to craft it.”
Using the high standards of the privately published books in the 19th century - an ideal known as the “book beautiful” - as a starting point, FMR sought expert artisans from various fields to create something Ms. Ferrari described as “a work of art in itself.”
Aurelio Amendola’s black-andwhite photographs were printed on paper made exclusively for the project. There are detachable reproductions of Michelangelo drawings on handmade folios created according to centuries-old traditions.
And then there’s the cover: a scale reproduction in marble of the “Madonna della Scala” (“Madonna of the Steps”), a bas-relief of the Virgin and Child sculptured by Michelangelo when he was still in his teens. The original is housed in the Casa Buonarroti in Florence.
It took two white-gloved attendants to carry the 21-kilogram book at its City Hall debut.
Because production of the Michelangelo book is so labor-intensive, aspiring buyers can expect a six-month wait, said Pietro Tomassini, FMR’s commercial director.
“We think it will sell out in a very short time,” he said.
Luxury publishing seems to be on the upswing. “From my experience, it’s growing,” said Ovais Naqvi, chief executive of Gloria, a new luxury publisher that this year came out with a book about New York City that sells at $2,500 to $15,000.
But the question remains, who would pay so much for such a book- Franco Negretto, a financial consultant here who was awed by the spectacle in the square, said he’d been persuaded by FMR’s pitch, despite the price tag.
“I’ll do everything I can to buy it,” he said solemnly.