Table Of ContentNEW DIRECTIONS IN BOOK HISTORY
Anonymity in Eighteenth-
Century Italian Publishing
The Absent Author
Lodovica Braida
New Directions in Book History
Series Editors
Shafquat Towheed
Faculty of Arts
Open University
Milton Keynes, UK
Jonathan Rose
Department of History
Drew University
Madison, NJ, USA
As a vital field of scholarship, book history has now reached a stage of
maturity where its early work can be reassessed and built upon. That is the
goal of New Directions in Book History. This series will publish mono-
graphs in English that employ advanced methods and open up new fron-
tiers in research, written by younger, mid-career, and senior scholars. Its
scope is global, extending to the Western and non-Western worlds and to
all historical periods from antiquity to the twenty-first century, including
studies of script, print, and post-print cultures. New Directions in Book
History, then, will be broadly inclusive but always in the vanguard. It will
experiment with inventive methodologies, explore unexplored archives,
debate overlooked issues, challenge prevailing theories, study neglected
subjects, and demonstrate the relevance of book history to other academic
fields. Every title in this series will address the evolution of the historiog-
raphy of the book, and every one will point to new directions in book
scholarship. New Directions in Book History will be published in three
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or multiple volumes; and shorter works produced through Palgrave’s
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Editorial board:
Marcia Abreu, University of Campinas, Brazil
Cynthia Brokaw, Brown University, USA
Matt Cohen, University of Texas at Austin, USA
Archie Dick, University of Pretoria, South Africa
Martyn Lyons, University of New South Wales, Australia
Lodovica Braida
Anonymity in
Eighteenth-Century
Italian Publishing
The Absent Author
Lodovica Braida
University of Milan
Milan, Italy
ISSN 2634-6117 ISSN 2634-6125 (electronic)
New Directions in Book History
ISBN 978-3-031-03897-6 ISBN 978-3-031-03898-3 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-03898-3
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature
Switzerland AG 2022
Translation from the Italian language edition: “L’autore assente. L’anonimato nell’editoria
italiana del Settecento” by Lodovica Braida, © Editori Laterza 2019. Published by Editori
Laterza. All Rights Reserved.
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of
translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on
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The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
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The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information
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institutional affiliations.
Cover illustration: BTEU/RKMLGE / Alamy Stock Photo
Vincent Placcius, Theatrum Anonymorum et Pseudonymorum (Hamburg, Liebernickel, 1708).
This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature
Switzerland AG.
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
To the memory of my mother, Anna.
C
ontents
1 Introduction. The Absent Author: Functions and Uses of
Anonymous Authorship 1
References 15
2 The Ambiguities of the “Author Function” 19
1 Reflections on the Book Market 19
2 How to Write to “be read”: The Advice of Carlo Denina 28
3 Authorial Silence 37
4 Vittorio Alfieri: “The terrible ordeal of printing” 46
References 57
3 Anonymity in Travel Books 65
1 Travel Writing and the Notion of the Author 65
2 Four Nameless Travellers 73
References 90
4 Giuseppe Parini: Between Anonymity and Revealing the
Author’s Name 95
1 Il Giorno and Its Continuer: Parini a Second Cervantes? 95
2 Silent Coexistence and “Rapacious” Printers: The
One- Volume Edition of Il Mattino, Il Mezzogiorno
e La Sera 108
3 Translations and the Re-instatement of the Author’s Name 116
References 134
vii
viii CONTENTS
5 Carlo Goldoni and the Construction of Authorship 139
1 From Stage to Page 139
2 Literary Property Versus Printing Privilege and Theatrical
“Use” 149
3 From Playwright to Author 158
References 176
6 Novels: Read Them and Forget Them 181
1 “Learned Italians” Do Not Write Novels 181
2 Delegitimisation and Anonymity 188
3 Books of “Sentiment” and Representation of Female Writing 195
4 Forgettable Books: Fire and Oblivion 200
References 206
Index 211
A A
bout the uthor
Lodovica Braida is Professor of History of the Book at the University of
Milan. Her work is devoted to the history of print culture and reading
practices in early modern Europe, and particularly in Italy, in a perspective
of socio-cultural history engaging bibliography, literary criticism, and
intellectual history. Among her publications are Stampa e cultura in
Europa tra XV e XVI secolo (Rome-Bari, 2000); Le raccolte epistolari del
Cinquecento tra inquietudini religiose e ‘buon volgare’ (Rome-Bari, 2009);
L’autore assente. L’anonimato nell’editoria italiana del Settecento (Rome-
Bari, 2019). She is the editor, with Brigitte Ouvry Vial, of Lire en Europe.
Textes, Formes, Lectures, XVIIIe–XXIe (Rennes, 2020).
ix
L f
ist of igures
Fig. 5.1 C. Goldoni, Commedie, Venezia, Pasquali, 1761–1780, vol. I,
1761, frontispiece engraving by Antonio Baratti from a drawing
by Pietro Antonio Novelli (Casa Carlo Goldoni, Venezia) 164
Fig. 5.2 C. Goldoni, Commedie, Venezia, Pasquali, 1761–1780, vol. X,
1761 [but 1767], frontispiece engraving by Antonio Baratti
from a drawing by Pietro Antonio Novelli (Casa Carlo
Goldoni, Venezia) 165
Fig. 5.3 C. Goldoni, Commedie, Venezia, Pasquali, vol. XIII, 1761
[but 1775], frontispiece engraving by Antonio Baratti from a
drawing by Pietro Antonio Novelli (Casa Carlo Goldoni,
Venezia) 166
Fig. 5.4 Portrait of C. Goldoni, in Le Commedie del Dottore Carlo
Goldoni, Venezia, Bettinelli, 1750, vol. I, anonymous engraver
(Casa Carlo Goldoni, Venezia) 171
Fig. 5.5 Portrait of C. Goldoni, in Le Commedie del Dottore Carlo
Goldoni, Firenze, Paperini, 1753, vol. III, engraving by Marco
Alvise Pitteri from a drawing by Giambattista Piazzetta (Casa
Carlo Goldoni, Venezia) 172
Fig. 5.6 Portrait of C. Goldoni, in Delle Commedie di Carlo Goldoni,
Venezia, Pasquali, 1761, vol. I, engraving by Marco Alvise
Pitteri from a drawing by Lorenzo Tiepolo (Casa Carlo
Goldoni, Venezia) 173
xi
