Phaidon has a long and distinguished history as an art book publisher. The company was founded in Vienna in 1923 by Dr. Bela Horowiz and Ludwig Goldscheider and named after “Phaedo”, Socrates’ pupil who spoke on the immortality of the soul. Their key objective was to deliver quality books at affordable prices. They were able to achieve this as pioneers of the international co-edition and with large print-runs. Their first titles were not art books, but books on literature, philosophy and history. Phaidon’s large format art books first emerged in 1936 with high-quality plates on Van Gogh, Botticelli, and the French Impressionists. These were some of the first large, sumptuously illustrated artist monographs reasonably priced for the general public.

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