Anonymity in Eighteenth-Century Italian Publishing

This book focuses on the different forms in which authorship came to be expressed in eighteenth-century Italian publishing. It analyses both the affirmation of the “author function”, and, above all, its paradoxical opposite: the use of anonymity, a centuries-old practice present everywhere in Europe but often neglected by scholarship. The reasons why authors chose to publish their works anonymously were manifold, including prudence, fear of censorship, modesty, fear of personal criticism, or simple divertissement. In many cases, it was an ethical choice, especially for ecclesiastics. The Italian case provides a key perspective on the study of anonymity in the European context, contributing to the analysis of an overlooked topic in academic studies.

Praise of the Italian edition “L’autore assente. L’anonimato nell’editoria italiana del Settecento ” by Lodovica Braida, Published by Editori Laterza.

“Lodovica Braida’s book is the result not only of her thorough knowledge of the subject but of an expressive elegance and conceptual refinement that makes it a jewel of literary, historical and critical knowledge and erudition.” (Alfredo Serrai, Bibliothecae, 8, 2019)

“This book examines the function of the author and the intellectual responsibility of texts by breaking from the traditional approach centered on the intellectual life of the author, and instead focussing on a literary history that is written from the perspective of the community: that of writers, printers, translators, patrons, readers and peers. The figure of the author becomes more complex, disappears or is magnified, identities are blurred, then reappear. And yet, at the same time, this ‘absent author’ has never seemed so present, so alive, as through the multiple testimonies that L. Braida offers us.” (Pierre Musitelli, Laboratoire italien, January 2020)

"Print culture invented the publisher, but also to some extent the figure of the author. Nowadays a name is a selling point; in earlier times authorial identity, however, as has been described for English literature by John Mullan (2007), was often shrouded in anonymity. The practice was also rife the other side of the Channel and this book documents the situation in eighteenth-century Italy. This volume makes a useful contribution to the literature on anonymity and confirms that the author is very much part of the fiction." (Neil Harris, The Library, March 2021)

Lodovica Braida is Professor of History of the Book at the University of Milan, Italy. Her work is devoted to the history of print culture and reading practices in early modern Europe, particularly in Italy, in a perspective of sociocultural history engaging bibliography, literary criticism, and intellectual history.