Introduction. The "translation boom" reframed: publishers, literary agents and the translation rights market in Italy -- 1. Modernisation, professionals, copyright: preconditions for the Italian translation industry -- 2. Intellectual networks, professional societies, translators: the "informal agents" of Laterza, Bemporad and Sonzogno -- 3. From direct contact to delegation, and back again: the shifting strategies of Arnoldo Mondadori -- 4. The rise of the Italian literary agent: Helicon and the Agenzia Letteraria Internazionale -- 5. Publishers' agencies: Helicon, Ulisse and the New York branch of Einaudi -- 6. Translations rights matter: wartime cultural diplomacy and the Italian book trade -- Conclusion. Towards a European history of the translation rights trade.

The 19th-century copyright revolution gave authors and translators powerful tools over the use of their works. It encouraged publishers to form networks that connected them to writers, translators, authors’ societies, and literary agents worldwide. This book argues that the development of international frameworks for the protection of literary property represented a watershed in the transnational circulation of texts in translation. Through the lens of the post-Unification Italian translation market of British and US authors (1900-1947), it combines a copyright historical approach to book history with a systematic survey of British and Italian archives. It positions the Italian publishing industry within the broader European and transatlantic copyright market to explore the cultural, social, and political value of translation rights, offering a new interpretative key to the transnational nature of the modern book trade. Anna Lanfranchi is Teaching Fellow in Translation and Transcultural Studies and Italian at the University of Warwick, UK. Her research focuses on transnational book and publishing history from the 19th century to the present day.