Utilitarismo. Prima versione italiana fatta sulla seconda edizione inglese dall'Avvocato E. Debenedetti.

First edition in Italian. 8vo. xxiii, [1], 153, [3] pp. Original yellow printed wrappers, edges untrimmed (slightly edge worn, spine rubbed at head and tail, contemporary "Torino Uff. Succursale" ink stamped postage mark to front wrapper, otherwise a very good copy). Turin, Favale.

The scarce first Italian language edition of Mill's Utilitarianism, with a presentation inscription from the translator Eugenio Debenedetti "... il traduttore" to the title page. Debenedetti, a Turinese lawyer, also provided a substantial introduction to Mill's text. Interest in the works of John Stuart Mill increased in Italy during the unification, with translations of virtually all of his main works appearing contemporaneously during 1850s and 1860s, influencing the development of Italian republicanism, particularly with regards to the political philosophy of Giuseppe Mazzini, with whom Mill became personally acquainted during Mazzini's exile in London. 

Originally printed across three issues of Fraser's Magazine in 1861, and first published in book form in 1863, Mill's Utilitarianism "attempted to reaffirm the authority of Bentham's formula by filling in the gap between the pleasure seeking of the individual and the greatest happiness of the greatest number" (Packe, The Life of John Stuart Mill, p. 420). "Although [Mill's] ethical writings (especially Utilitarianism) have been much criticised, they contain the most influential philosophical articulation of a liberal humanistic morality that was produced in the nineteenth century" (Encyclopaedia of Philosophy V, p. 319).

Rare. OCLC only one copy in North America, held by the Houghton Library, Harvard. RareBookHub / ABPC list no copies to have sold at auction. 

Einaudi, 3914; not in Mattioli or Sraffa.

Stock Code: 234051