By Andrew Richard Albanese, Editor-in-Chief
The Italian publishing and bookselling group Feltrinelli has announced an agreement to take a minority stake in Il Saggiatore, the historic Milan-based publishing house founded by Alberto Mondadori and currently chaired by Luca Formenton.
Under the agreement, Feltrinelli has acquired a 30% stake, bringing together two distinguished, independent Italian publishers. Further financial details were not disclosed.
In a release, Feltrinelli officials said the deal aims to “enhance and ensure the continuity of the work carried out by Il Saggiatore,” which will continue under Formenton’s leadership.
“The agreement with the Feltrinelli Group will enable Il Saggiatore to benefit from a robust organizational structure as well as new synergies in distribution and promotion, with the aim of securing an even more ambitious future and ensuring an increasingly widespread reach for its catalog,” the release states, while adding “a new dimension to the Feltrinelli publishing group.”
The fourth largest Italian group, Feltrinelli, founded in Milan in 1954 by Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, has historically stood for progressive values and the promotion of culture. Today, Feltrinelli is one of Europe’s leading independent publishing enterprises, active in Italy and Spain, renowned internationally, and growing. The company also is home to Italy’s premier bookstore chain, with some 125 retail locations across the country. As Publishing Perspectives reported, the company expanded into Latin America earlier this year, opening a book shop in Montevideo, Uruguay.
Il Saggiatore is one of Italy’s most heralded nonfiction and literary publishers, publishing books across fields such as sociology, history, science, art history, and music. Among its catalog, classics by authors including Jean-Paul Sartre, Edmund Husserl, Karl Popper, Arnold Schoenberg, Simone de Beauvoir, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Ernesto De Martino, Nassim Taleb, and Slavoj Žižek. On the literary side, Il Saggitore publishes works by Allen Ginsberg, Louise Glück, Norman Manea, Jean Genet, Carlos Fuentes, Joan Didion, and Mircea Cărtărescu.
“Today we celebrate an alliance with a publishing house that—born from the cultural ambition of Alberto Mondadori—has played a decisive role in introducing the cutting edge of nonfiction and literary fiction into the national discourse, demonstrating a capacity for innovation that remains undiminished to this day,” said Carlo Feltrinelli, Chairman of the Feltrinelli Group, in a statement. “With great enthusiasm, and alongside my friend Luca Formenton, we will contribute our efforts to honor and enhance this history, this catalog, and this passion for books.”
In his statement, Il Saggiatore President Luca Formenton also referenced his close friendship with Carlo Feltrinelli.
“Il Saggiatore and Feltrinelli were born in post-war Italy from the same conviction: that publishing books is a civic act rather than merely a business venture,” he said. “That tradition of editorial innovation constitutes the shared heritage that now brings them together once again: a partnership that strengthens Il Saggiatore’s prospects while fully respecting its editorial autonomy, and reinvigorates a vision that both publishing houses have cultivated since their very inception. Added to this is a personal element: the friendship that binds me to Carlo Feltrinelli makes the dawn of this new era a source of particular joy—a new chapter undertaken as editors and citizens, even before being partners.”
About the AuthorAndrew Albanese