Family Name: Genovesi
First Name: Antonio
Birth Date: Mon, Oct 30, 1713
Birth Place: Castiglione
Death Date: Thu, Sep 21, 1769
Death Place: Naples
Main places of activity:
Place From To
Naples 1736 1767
Personal info:
Education

Genovesi received his earliest education from his father and afterwards studied Peripatetic and Cartesian philosophy under the guidance of his relative, the young doctor Niccolò Genovesi. He continued his studies in theology and philosophy in the Augustinian convent of Buccino, where the priest Giovanni Abbamonte taught him Latin and Greek. He later graduated in dogmatic philosophy.
Career

Genovesi was ordained deacon in 1736 and priest the following year.

In 1738 he moved to Naples, where he befriended Giambattista Vico and taught metaphysics (1741-1745) and ethics (1745-1753) at the University.

In 1754 he occupied the first European chair of "commerce and mechanics" (i. e. political economy).
Translations Other Works

translations activities

Genovesi only translated one seminal work by the English merchant and economist John Cary.

However, Genovesi also constituted a circle that read and discussed Montesquieu's L'Esprit des lois. He had a role in the first Italian edition in Naples (1750) and his handwritten notes on the French edition were included from the third Italian edition until 1953.

secondary bibliography references

E. De Mas, Montesquieu, Genovesi e le edizioni italiane dello “Spirito delle leggi”, Florence, Le Monnier, 1971.

E. Pii, Antonio Genovesi: dalla politica economica alla "politica civile", Florence, L.S. Olschki, 1984.

R. Bellamy, 'Da metafisico a mercante' - Antonio Genovesi and the development of a new language of commerce in eighteenth-century Naples, in A. Pagden, ed., The Languages of Political Theory in Early-Modern Europe, Cambridge, Cambrigde University Press, 1987, pp. 277-299.

G. Imbruglia, “Due opposte letture napoletane dell’Esprit des lois : Genovesi e Personè”, in Montesquieu e i suoi interpreti, ed. by D. Felice, Pisa, ETS, 2005, vol. I, pp. 191-210.

S. Reinert, Translating Empire. Emulation and the Origins of Political Economy, Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 2011, pp.187-232.

A. Pabst and R. Scazzieri, "Virtue, Production and the Politics of Commerce: Genovesi's 'Civil Economy' Revisited", History of Political Economy, 2018.

Translations

  • An essay on the state of England in relation to its trade, its poor, and its taxes, for carrying on the present war against France

  • Translation Title: Storia del commercio della Gran Brettagna
  • Original Author: John Cary
  • Original title: An essay on the state of England in relation to its trade, its poor, and its taxes, for carrying on the present war against France
  • Publ. Year From: 1694 to:
  • lang: English
  • Note:

    This classic of economic theory was reprinted and translated several times until deep into the eighteenth century.
  • Title: Essai sur l'état du commerce d'Angleterre
  • Pub. Place: Paris
  • Pub. Year: 1754
  • Lang: French
  • Translation: Storia del commercio della Gran Brettagna
  • Pub. Place: Naples
  • Pub. Date: 1756
  • Lang: Italian
  • Note:

    Just like Butel-Dumont's French translation that constituted his source, Genovesi expanded the original from Cary with additional osservations and some personal corrections.

calamaio

By:

  • Giovanni Lista