Research

My research intersects translation, Italian and book history to focus on transnational publishing from the 19th century to the present day. I am interested in the circulation of texts in modern times, in the development of copyright law and modern authorship, and in the relationship between cultural diplomacy, propaganda and printed materials.

Before joining the University of Warwick, I was a lecturer at the University of Manchester, where I was awarded a PhD in Translation and Intercultural Studies in 2021. My first monograph, titled Translations and Copyright in the Italian Book Trade: Publishers, Agents, and the State (1900-1947) Link opens in a new window(Palgrave 2024, New Directions in Book History), investigates the political, social and cultural value of intellectual property by retracing the negotiation of translation rights to British and US works in Italy over the first half of the 20^th century, as well as the networks of authors, publishers, translators, authors’ societies, and literary agents working across language and state borders.

Currently, I am working on translation as cultural diplomacy and propaganda in Italy during the Second World War. The pilot phase of this project has received the Fredson Bowers Award of the UK Bibliographical Society and the BSA in 2024 ('Books for war and peace: Italian publishing and US book and translation programmes in the Second World War’).

I have published on Italian translation and publishing history, wartime book programmes, intellectuals in the book trade. I am also interested in the cultural history of Fascist Italy and in the interrelation between politics, culture, and language in conflicts and totalitarian regimes.

Research interests

• Book and publishing history
• Translation/translators' history
• International copyright
• Literary agents
• Post-Unification Italian culture
• Fascist Italy
• Cultural diplomacy and propaganda
• Print studies and book design
• Archival research
• Special collections
• Digital curation

Publications

Book

A. Lanfranchi, Translations and Copyright in the Italian Book Trade: Publishers, Agents, and the State (1900-1947)Link opens in a new window (Cham: Palgrave, 2024).

Journal articles

A. Lanfranchi, ‘The Nobel and Back Again: Re-evaluating Mondadori’s Translation Strategy for Pearl S. Buck’, Journal of World Literature 8 (2023), 535-550.

A. Lanfranchi, ‘"Our International Copyright Law": regolamentazione e dinamiche del diritto di traduzione in Italia nel primo NovecentoLink opens in a new window', Ácoma 21 (2021), 43-63.

A. Lanfranchi, 'Italian Translation Rights, the British Council and the Central Office of Information (1943-47)’, Annali d’italianistica 38 (2020), 343-366.

A. Lanfranchi, ‘Cesare Pavese, Luciano Foà, Erich Linder: note sulla corrispondenza per la “collana viola”’, Studium, 116.2 (2020), 32-48.

Curatorial activities

‘Un Albatross a Verona: Mondadori e l'Albatross Modern Continental LibraryLink opens in a new window’, online and in-person exhibition (20 May-14 June 2024), with Fondazione Arnoldo e Alberto Mondadori, Milan, Italy.

Book reviews

‘Andrew Pettegree. The Book at War: How Reading Shaped Conflict and Conflict Shaped Reading’, Sharp News (2024).

‘Alessandro Bosco, Stefano Bragato, Felicity Brunner, Raffaella Castagnola, Tatiana Crivelli (a cura di), S/confinare. I rapporti culturali italo-svizzeri tra associazionismo, editoria e propaganda (1935-1965)’, Bollettino ’900, Jan.-May 2023 (1-2).

‘Reading, Wanting, and Broken Economics. A Twenty-First-Century Study of Readers and Bookshops in Southampton around 1900, by Simon R. Frost’, Information and Culture 58.2 (2023), 212-213.

Workshop and Seminar organised

‘Literary agents in the transnational book market: collaboration and resistance’ (with J. Raimo; chair: C. Cottenet), SHARP2023, Dunedin, 29 June 2023.

‘Transnational Book History & Italy: Perspectives from the Archives’ (with J. Raimo; chair: M. Milani), SIS Biennial Conference, Warwick, 22 April 2022.

‘Transnational communities of mediation: Anglo-Italian literary flows in the 19th and 20th centuries’ (with V. Abbatelli and F. Coluzzi; chair: M. Milani), roundtable, SHARP2021, Münster, 27 July 2021.

Qualifications

• PhD, University of Manchester (2021).
• BA (2012) & MA (2015), Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan.
• Fellow of Advance HE.