Einaudi

Einaudi is one of the Italian publishers through which Benno von Archimboldi’s work reached readers before Piero Morini began translating him. Its 1969 edition of The Leather Mask belongs to a sequence of Italian publications that established a modest publishing presence without securing literary or commercial success.

Role in Archimboldi’s Italian Publication History

The first Archimboldi novel to come into Piero Morini’s hands was not his own translation but Colossimo’s translation of The Leather Mask, published by Einaudi in 1969. The book was part of a broader Italian publication history: Rivers of Europe followed in 1971, Inheritance in 1973, and Railroad Perfection in 1975. A Roman publishing house had also issued The Berlin Underworld, a collection consisting mostly of war stories, in 1964. Einaudi’s edition thus preceded Morini’s work and shows that Archimboldi had already been translated and circulated in Italy by other hands.

Publications Without an Audience

The existence of these editions did not make Archimboldi a success in Italy. His books were available, but the Italian public showed scant interest; they languished on the dustiest shelves of bookstores, were remaindered, or were forgotten in publishers’ warehouses before being pulped. The distinction is important: publication brought the work into the market, but did not produce a durable readership. Einaudi’s role is therefore part of a record of circulation and neglect, rather than a story of commercial discovery.

The Context for Morini’s Advocacy

Against this background, Morini’s later efforts were not an introduction of an entirely unknown author but a renewed attempt to make an unsuccessful one matter. After translating Bifurcaria Bifurcata in 1988, Morini wrote two studies of Archimboldi for journals in Milan and Palermo, addressing fate in Railroad Perfection and conscience and guilt in Lethaea and Bitzius. Both pieces were published, and Morini’s eloquence in presenting Archimboldi overcame obstacles to interest in the author; in 1991, a second translation by Morini appeared. The narrative sets Einaudi’s earlier publication beside this later critical advocacy: one made Archimboldi available, while the other helped sustain attention to his work.