Lost Biographies. Women in Translation during Fascism: Agnese Silvestri Giorgi

Abstract

As part of a broader research project on literary translations from Romanian into Italian in the 20th century, this contribution aims to investigate the figure of female translators, invisible protagonists of the Italian literary and publishing world in the first half of the last century. In line with the latest studies on “the historical, social, and gender dimensions of the invisibility of those who translate” (Baldini-Marcucci 2023), we therefore aim to reconstruct the “corner” of the Italian publishing panorama occupied by Romanian literature in translation, reconstructing the biographies and activities of some professionals in the book market. On this occasion, in particular, we will present the biography of Agnese Silvestri Giorgi, a name that has been almost forgotten, despite her prolific work as a translator from several languages (French, English, German, Romanian, and Russian) for important Italian publishing houses, including Nuova Italia, Carabba, Baldini&Castoldi, and Sonzogno.