Intellectual Networks, Professional Societies, Translators: The “Informal Agents” of Laterza, Bemporad, and Sonzogno

If the development of the Italian translation industry had nineteenth-century preconditions, a variety of social actors were negotiating translation rights at the turn of the following century. While Giovanni Laterza relied on intellectual circles to negotiate the translation rights necessary to launch his prewar collections, Enrico Bemporad entrusted the New York representative of the SIAE to act on his behalf on the US market. Finally, the archival records of Sonzogno highlight the role played by amateur and professional translators in bridging the gap between Italian publishers and British and US authors. Taken together, these case studies demonstrate that the emergence of professional literary agents was preceded by the activity of “informal agents”. By channelling translation rights to publishing houses and periodicals, these intermediaries filled the professional gap created by the Berne Convention and the international agreements for copyright protection, effectively contributing to the translation activity of Italian firms from the beginning of century through to the 1930s.