The Use of Anonymity in Eighteenth-Century Italian Publishing. The Ambiguites of the “Author Function”

The article explores the choice made by many authors to publish their works anonymously. This was a practice that spanned centuries and was present across Europe, but its importance has rarely been considered by scholars of literary criticism, intellectual history, or book history. Focusing on the Italian publishing landscape of the eighteenth century, this study highlights the historical, social, and cultural significance of anonymous authorship. The use of anonymity always has different motivations, which can be identified either in the political and cultural context in which it is expressed, in the personal needs of the individual author (for authors belonging to a religious order, it is often an ethical matter), or in the genre to which the work belongs (as is the case with novels), or in issues related to censorship, in a complex interplay between authorial identity, genre conventions, and publishing practices. By challenging traditional assumptions about the centrality of the author, the article contributes to a broader historiographical reassessment of the “author function” and its ambiguities within the Italian eighteenth-century print culture.