The 19th-century copyright revolution gave authors and translators powerful tools over the use of their works. It encouraged publishers to form networks that connected them to writers, translators, authors’ societies, and literary agents worldwide. This book argues that the development of international frameworks for the protection of literary property represented a watershed in the transnational circulation of texts in translation. Through the lens of the post-Unification Italian translation market of British and US authors (1900-1947), it combines a copyright historical approach to book history with a systematic survey of British and Italian archives. It positions the Italian publishing industry within the broader European and transatlantic copyright market to explore the cultural, social, and political value of translation rights, offering a new interpretative key to the transnational nature of the modern book trade.

lgrsnf/Translations and Copyright in the Italian Book Trade.pdf

Springer Nature Switzerland AG

Switzerland, Switzerland

Note on Transcriptions of Archival Material
Acknowledgements
Contents
Abbreviations
Archives
Italy
United Kingdom
List of Tables
Chapter 1: Introduction: A Copyright Revolution
The Historiographical Debate
The Law and the Archive
The Structure of the Book
Chapter 2: Modernisation, Professionals, Copyright: Preconditions for the Italian Translation Industry
Publishing as a Cultural Industry: Britain, the United States, and Italy
The Professionalisation of Publishing and the Literary Agent
1886, 1892: International Copyright and Translation Rights in Italy
Chapter 3: Intellectual Networks, Professional Societies, Translators: The “Informal Agents” of Laterza, Bemporad, and Sonzogno
The Intellectual Networks of Giovanni Laterza
Bemporad and the Società Italiana degli Autori ed Editori
Sonzogno’s Translators as Literary Agents
Chapter 4: Direct Contacts and Delegation: the Shifting Strategies of Arnoldo Mondadori
Arnoldo Mondadori and the Translation Market in the 1920s
Channelling Works of English-Speaking Writers: An Analysis of the Readers’ Reports
An Experiment in Archival Triangulation: Mondadori, Helicon, and the ALI
A Transnational Mediator: “Mr. Montano, Reader of the Casa Mondadori”91
Chapter 5: The Rise of the Italian Literary Agent: Helicon and the Agenzia Letteraria Internazionale
British, US, and Continental Literary Agents
From Publishers, for Publishers: Helicon and the Agenzia Letteraria Internazionale
Translation Rights in Fascist Italy: Authors’ Interests and Censorial Constraints
Chapter 6: Publishers’ Agencies: Helicon, Ulisse, and the New York Branch of Einaudi
Mondadori’s Swiss Enterprise: The Second Helicon
“What Is Happening on the Other Side”: The New York Branch of Einaudi
Ulisse, Between Theatre and Archival Silences
Chapter 7: Translation Rights Matter: Wartime Cultural Diplomacy and the Italian Book Trade
Restoring the Italian Translation Industry: the Rome Embassy and the British Council (1945–1946)
The Central Office of Information and Translation Rights (1946–1947)
Translation Rights to US works: the Rome Embassy and the United States Information Service
Chapter 8: Conclusion: Towards a Transnational History of the Translation Rights Trade
Bibliography
Archives
Italy
United Kingdom
Published Works
Translations and Source Texts Referred to in the Book
Index

2024-10-31