Alfredo Malchiodi was born and raised in Rome, Italy. His school years gave him a rigorous and classical training in Art. He studied in Rome at the institute Manieri-Copernico and at the Fine Art Academy. In 1967 he received his degree in Art & Crafts and Art & Architectural History. He also frequented the School of Architecture were he served as Assistant Professor. As were many Renaissance masters, Alfredo is multi-talented. His breadth of knowledge is not easily confined the Fine Arts or limited in scope. Both while a student and after graduation, he worked for Italian and Spanish television and in the Italian cinema. In his work for television, he traveled around Europe and North Africa covering current events and producing stories on Italian culture and history.
Though a Canadian citizen, Alfredo currently makes his home in the San Francisco Bay Area where he has a graphic arts studio. Returning to his roots as an artist but combining it with modern technology, he began the Illuminated Manuscripts Project, a.k.a. www.alfredom.com.
Alfredo has been a passionate admirer of the Illuminated Manuscripts and books made in the Middle Age and Renaissance, since his school years. After graduating as a teacher of Art and Art History, and being an academic, he had access to many of those pieces of art in restricted areas of libraries and was able to study them from close. The making of such books took months and years. Certainly they were not for everybody; very few could afford them. Today in the age of the electronic arts not too much has changed. Many people do not have the opportunity to appreciate this form of art. Most of those magnificent pieces of art are locked in libraries far from public access; of the few that are displayed a showcased only two pages may be visible.
For the Illuminated Manuscripts Project he started re-drawing by hand the borders, page decorations and initial capital letters of many Manuscripts and early printed books. All in vector format on a digital tablet connected to a computer. By the end of 2005 he had already 18 volumes completed.
The results of his project have earned the patronage and praise from people on every continent and in every walk of life. You can see this project’s extension into a variety of art-related fields, including new book publications, print and web media, stage productions and even needlework.

Anita Malchiodi received her B.A. degree in English from the University of California at Berkeley, noted for a program emphasis on the classics. Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, Spenser and authors through to the Gothic-Romantic era were de rigour components of the curriculum taught. Until she served in the U.S. Peace Corps, she admits she was a stuffy reader – reading mostly the classics of literature and much history. In her Peace Corps years, she usually read a book a night of a wider variety of genres in contemporary literature.
On her return to the USA, she went on to earn a Masters degree in International Affairs from The Ohio University.
She returned to full-time teaching 1993, teaching both English and Business middle school classes. Today, she teaches high school computer applications, web design, yearbook/journalism and, from time to time English classes. She lives in the Bay Area of California with her husband (Alfredo), their cat (Mimi) and dog (Scooby). She remains an avid reader and cinema-phile.

Carlos

Carlos Alonso was born in an industrial town north of Burgos, Spain. There he received his primary education and professional training at the Technological Institute, specializing in machinery tools.
Between lathes, milling machines, technical drawings, he also enjoyed the study of Art History.
His university studies were at the Escuela Politécnica of Valladolid (in the Castilla region of Spain) and, loving the town, he chose to make this marvelous town his permanent residence.
Those early years of his university studies coincided with major advances in Information Technology that quickly, grabbing his imagination, became one of his many passions, along with photography, reading and, obviously, books.
What began as a personal interest evolved into a career as an I.T. professional in charge in the Information Technology for the Valladolid branch of one of Spain’s most important courier companies.
Though his education and career has a strong technological bent, he remains a book lover and avid reader. “I would not exchange the pleasure of the printed page or a good book for any other.”
Carlos is much aware of the uniqueness of this incredible age in which we now live --when it’s more than ever possible to meld seemingly diverse passions like Information Technology, photography and the world of literature and books.

That is why he was eager to be a part of this project when it was suggested to him by his friend, Alfredo.

Carlos, among other things, is the programming genius behind the sophisticated web pages for book viewing at this website. He is also the curator and translator of the Spanish language sister-site, bringing this project within reach of the large Spanish-speaking world community.