THE LIVORNESE EDITION OF DIDEROT AND D’ALEMBERT’S ENCYCLOPEDIA
Friday 18th October, 5.00 pm – 7.00 pm
White Room – Museum of Natural History of the Mediterranean
234, Via Roma, Livorno
Presented by
Emiliano Carnieri President Café of Science N. Badaloni
Guest
Gabriele Benucci Author of the book
The book “The Livornese Edition of Diderot and D’Alembert’s Encyclopédie” by Gabriele Benucci (in the photo) will be presented on Friday, October 18, from 5 to 7 pm in Saletta bianca – Museo di Storia Naturale del Mediterraneo (via Roma n 234). The event will be presented by Emiliano Carnieri, president of Caffè della Scienza N. Badaloni, with the author of the book as a guest.
The Livornese edition of the Encyclopédie by Diderot and D’Alembert still represents the most important publishing enterprise ever carried out in our city for its historical-cultural and entrepreneurial value, which it still holds over 250 years after the distribution of the first volume. Created between 1770 and 1778, it is the last of the three folio editions (the largest printing format) after those of Paris (1751-1772) and Lucca (1758-1776).
In the mid-18th century and throughout the second half of the century, Livorno is certainly one of the most important ports in the Mediterranean and a city characterized by cosmopolitanism, liberalism, and great economic vivacity: an ideal environment for the third edition of the Encyclopédie and for publishing in general. It is in this context that this third and final edition in folio takes place, whose publishing history is outlined in a volume that highlights the cultural and economic motivations, the characters, the challenges, and the obstacles that characterized it in relation and comparison with the two previous Parisian and Lucchese editions. Thanks to the duty-free status and the enlightened government of Pietro Leopoldo, Livorno acquired a fundamental function: to convey the penetration of new ideas, especially from England first and then from France. Especially starting from the early 1760s, publishing activity began to have significant development in the city and printing presses began to produce works whose quality equaled, if not even surpassed, that of the most renowned typography workshops in other cities of the Peninsula, making Livorno one of the most active centers of book production and trade. The Livornese encyclopedic edition also had to face being put on the Index by the Church of Rome, but had on its side Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo, the “philosophical prince”. However, nothing would have been possible without the stubbornness, business acumen in the publishing field, and love for knowledge and ideas from across the Alps of Giuseppe Aubert, the “literary printer” who was the creator and main architect of the Livorno edition. The work of this original figure of printer-writer, one of the most intelligent and skilled entrepreneurs of Italian publishing in the 18th century, is outlined in all its aspects through the important correspondence he maintained with the Caffè group, with Cesare Beccaria and with the brothers Alessandro and Pietro Verri, as demonstrated by the more than twenty-year correspondence with the latter to discuss all the major themes of Enlightenment Europe.
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