La letteratura tedesca in Italia. Un'introduzione (1900–1920) is a valuable source for anyone interested in European literature and translation studies, whether scholars, students or interested readers. The authors discuss the routes through which literary works by selected twentieth-century German writers were translated and introduced to an Italian readership, thanks to the brave choices of a group of Italian intellectuals who worked for the major Italian literary reviews of the early twentieth century, such as Leonardo, La Voce, and Lacerba.

The volume is organised in three sections. The first opens with a concise and cohesively-written introduction. The content of this chapter is signposted by clear subheadings which help place this work within the context of the larger research project whence it stems, and highlights the key features of the volume. The authors explain the relevance of the overview and analysis that they present. Their original desire to understand which German authors were read in Italy in the twentieth century uncovered the need to investigate the perceived value attributed to the works and authors translated into Italian, and the complex ecosystem which determined such value. The authors’ search for these answers reveals the fundamental role of the social and cultural capital of key intellectuals operating in Italy at the time, such as Giovanni Papini, Giuseppe Prezzolini, Scipio Slataper, Giuseppe Antonio Borgese, and Ardengo Soffici, to name a few. After explaining the programmatic research lines and the theoretical apparatus upon which the volume is built, the authors introduce keywords (sistema e repertorio; autonomia e eteronomia; manipolazione) which help readers to navigate the discussion, analysis, selection of authors, mediators and texts presented in the volume. The introduction includes a short paragraph on further available sources connected to the larger project of which this volume is part. One of these is a rich digital database, LTit – Letteratura tradotta in Italia (www.ltit.it). The authors conclude the introduction by making a concise yet convincing case for the necessity to overcome the traditional separation in ‘national literatures’ by incorporating into the canon those texts which effectively became part of the corpus of the literature produced in Italy as texts in translation.

This valuable introduction is followed by five thematic chapters which discuss and analyse the dynamics leading to the translation or new translations of specific German literary texts, the impact which these decisions had for the renewal of the established literary canon, and the pivotal role of translations, translators and mediators behind such renewal: I. ‘Avanguardia e regole dell'arte a Firenze’, by Anna Baldini; II. ‘Gli editori e il rinnovamento del repertorio’, by Michele Sisto; III. ‘I mistici tedeschi tradotti e narrati da Giuseppe Prezzolini’, by Stefania De Lucia; IV. ‘Traduzione come importazione di posture autoriali. Le riviste letterarie fiorentine d'inizio Novecento’, by Irene Fantappiè; and V. ‘Nel cantiere del romanzo: il Wilhelm Meister della Voce’, by Daria Biagi.

These chapters have the fundamental merit of helping to dismantle those rigid national boundaries often utilised to label specific literary canons. They reveal the interplay and connections between intellectuals, philosophers, writers and – perhaps most importantly – the continuous journey of ideas across borders.

The ensuing section, entitled ‘Traiettorie’, focuses on the work of selected mediators. It is subdivided into five chapters, each dedicated to a specific mediator: one publisher – Rocco Carabba; two intellectuals – Giovanni Papini and Giuseppe Prezzolini; and two translators – Rosina Pisaneschi and Alberto Spaini. This section allows readers to understand the role and impact which publishers and mediators played in the choice of the works to be translated or in the reinterpretation of previously translated works.

The susbequent ‘Antologia’ spans 67 pages and collects a selection of 19 texts, each preceded by a very short introduction aimed at creating a context for the text. This section is to be read as complementary to the discussion presented in the initial five thematic chapters, while being equally connected to the ‘trajectories’ outlined in the preceding section. The selection consists of a mixture of short essays, extracts from correspondence and translations published in important literary reviews of the time by some of the key actors who facilitated and promoted the dissemination of specific German literary works in Italy. By including this material, the authors provide clear evidence for the interplay of multiple prominent intellectuals and their desire to offer alternative routes to those dictated by the dominant literary establishment, be it in the form of esteemed academic figures or that of commercial publishers accused of primarily responding to the potential to sell. Anna Baldini reminds us, for instance, how Prezzolini wrote in 1905 in Leonardo that ‘[i]n questo mondo della cassetta e del successo, … la grandezza è misurata dalla tiratura di un libro, … ogni editore è un piaggiatore delle perturbazioni sessuali e intellettuali del pubblico’ ([i]n this world of the box office and success … the greatness of a book is measured by its circulation … Every publisher is a flatterer of the public's sexual and intellectual perturbations’). These words prefaced Prezzolini's appreciation of the German publisher Eugen Diederichs (whose publishing house was originally established in 1896 in Florence), known as ‘l'editore romantico della Germania’ (p. 206).

The volume, complemented by a concise glossary, a bibliography and an index, has undoubtedly the great merit of combining very rich research and depth of content with flowing prose, precise terminology and a very accessible format. The authors deserve praise for skilfully unveiling a complex web of connections joining key figures and key texts across the borders, and outlining the dynamics through which German texts and writers entered or were re-introduced into the Italian literary scene, thanks to the work of translators and cultural mediators. The various sections into which the volume is organised also shed light on the rivalries and alliances between various intellectuals of the time, who were preoccupied with promoting a specific literary agenda to the Italian public. Most importantly, the volume clearly recounts the crucial work of cultural mediators and translators, whose contribution to the promotion and development of the renewal and innovation of the literary canon is often underestimated, if not ignored.