Not many know that the invention of the typewriter as we know it comes from the ingenuity of an Italian attorney from Novara (Piedmont), Giuseppe Ravizza (1811-1885). Because its keys were reminiscent of those of a piano, another famous Italian invention, Ravizza called its creation cembalo scrivano, orwriting clavier.

In fact, the very mechanism Ravizza ideated was based on the way the instrument produces sound, keys hitting a hammer-like device that, in turn, “prints” letters on paper. It was 1837.