A brilliant exploration of Italian print modernity, this book charts Sonzognos visionary innovations in newspapers, serialized fiction, and periodicals. Valisa shows how nineteenth-century media practices shaped by technology, ideology, and readership anticipate todays digital information systems. Insightful and rigorously argued, it is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the origins and enduring dynamics of modern media culture. - Stefano Bragato, Independent Researcher
The Periodical Life of Modernity is a monograph for our times, a rare instance of insight into the evolution of media that explains the present moment through a clear-headed understanding of the past. - Clorinda Donato, California State University, Long Beach
Silvia Valisa is the leading authority on publisher Sonzogno. The Periodical Life of Modernity fills a significant gap in Italys intellectual history and moves beyond encyclopedic volumes to set a new standard for scholars studying individual publishers. - Ombretta Frau, Mount Holyoke College
Silvia Valisas in-depth study of Il Secolo, along with some of its ancillary content, is dedicated to a nuanced study of the vast and varied production of the publishing firm Sonzogno. The Periodical Life of Modernity provides a unique vantage point from which the complexities of Italian culture during the turn of the century can be gleaned. Valisa offers a groundbreaking interrogation of nineteenth-century print culture that far exceeds national limits and that will prove to be seminal to scholars of the history of publishing across Europe. - Giancarlo Lombardi, City University of New York
