Grafiche Casbot, originally established as Tipografia Casbot, is a printing company founded in Busto Arsizio, Italy, in 1960 by Giovanni Castiglioni and Luigi Bottigelli. In 1961 Giuseppe Tovaglieri joined the company and, shortly afterwards, Bottigelli left to establish his own business. Castiglioni and Tovaglieri subsequently continued the development of the firm. In 1967 they decided to build a new production plant in Samarate, in the province of Varese, which was inaugurated in 1969 and became the company’s historical headquarters.
The company expanded considerably during the 1960s and 1970s, including the establishment of the advertising studio Studio Pubblimor in Milan. During the 1970s and 1980s Grafiche Casbot developed collaborations with major national and international companies and institutions, including the European Economic Community. At the height of its activity the company employed more than forty production workers, technicians and other professionals. The company is currently managed by descendants of its founders.

The collection was preserved by Grafiche Casbot in the Province of Varese, Italy. It was donated to the Historical Archives of the European Union by Riccardo Tovaglieri, on behalf of Grafiche Casbot, under the terms of an agreement signed in Florence on 11 July 2026 between the donor and the HAEU, represented by its Director Dieter Cornel Schlenker. Under the agreement, ownership of the material was transferred permanently and irrevocably to the HAEU upon completion of the transfer.

Donated by Riccardo Tovaglieri on behalf of Grafiche Casbot in 2026.

The Grafiche Casbot collection consists of approximately 120 items comprising original posters and related promotional and graphic material produced for European institutions and preserved by the printing company Grafiche Casbot. The collection includes posters produced for the first direct elections to the European Parliament in 1979, some of them in several European languages; material from the cultural series "Gli Europei"; catalogues relating to the exhibition "Manifesti per l’Europa" (1977); and posters on European cities produced for the European Commission and the European Parliament. It also includes other promotional and graphic material relating to European integration and institutional communication.

The collection has been arranged by the HAEU xxxxxx

Academic use and reproduction of the documents are authorised in accordance with the provisions in force at the Historical Archives of the European Union, subject to applicable copyright and other legal restrictions.

English, Irish, Italian

Artifact, Poster, Textual