SMITH, Adam.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Ricerche sulla Natura, e le Cagioni della Riccezza delle Nazioni. First edition in Italian of the Wealth of Nations, among the scarcest of the 18th-century translations. Barring certain insubstantial references in journals, "Smith's ideas did not reach Italy until 1790" (Gioli, p. 153).The translation was a quintessential product of the Neapolitan Enlightenment, which had seen the development of political economy itself by Galiani and Genovesi in the 1750s. According to the preface, the anonymous translator had corresponded with Smith and had received advice as to his translation. The edition takes its wider lead from Blavet's French translation, which appeared from 1779 to 1780, while adapting various phrases and concepts to an Italian context.The second edition in Italian was not published until 1851.

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