Founded in 1927 by entrepreneur Angelo Rizzoli as A. Rizzoli & Co., it started in the press industry by buying out four national magazines, and later entering the publishing industry. Restructured and taken over a number of times, particularly in the 1980s when two of its executives became involved in the collapse of Banco Ambrosiano and the illegal Masonic Lodge Propaganda Due – or P2. Following the 1982 death of Roberto Calvi, the group applied for bankruptcy protection and greatly downsized.