This year marks the 10th anniversary of the death of Umberto Eco, a genial Italian author famous worldwide for his book ‘’The name of the rose’’. Eco was a towering presence on the Italian cultural scene and, among other things, he was one of the founding members of a new, exciting publishing house.
‘’La nave di Teseo’’ was founded in 2015 by a group of Italian writers, including Umberto Eco, Elisabetta Sgarbi, sister of art critic Vittorio, and Mario Andreose, following the sale of the historical Bompiani publishing house, to which they were all connected, to the Mondadori Group.
The name was a clever choice of the group and is based on a mythological legend.
In Greek mythology, Theseus, king of the city of Athens, rescued the children of Athens from King Minos after slaying the Minotaur and then escaped onto a ship going to Delos. Each year, the Athenians would commemorate this by taking the ship Delos to honour Apollo. Over time, various timbers rotted and were replaced. A question was raised by ancient philosophers: If no pieces of the original remained in the current ship, was it still the Ship of Theseus? If it was no longer the same, when had it ceased existing as the original ship?
There you can see the connection in the name of the new publishing company: it is Bompiani under a new name, still Bompiani, seen that all the people in the new publishing company were connected with the old one or a total new entity?
‘’La nave di Teseo’’ catalogue is full of exciting works. I will mention just two as possible ‘’appetizers’’:
‘Un’educazione veneziana’’ by Mario Andreose
Just published, written by the President of ‘’ La nave di Teseo’’. Mario Andreose, 91 years old, is a pivotal figure in the Italian publishing and newspaper world. This is a delightful autobiography of his early life in Venice, starting in the years immediately after the war, witnessing the birth of a new nation after the fascist era, discovering love and the passion of his life, and books. Full of photographs, the book reads like a coming-of-age story and the fond memory of a past world.
‘’Case, amori, universi’’ by Fosco Maraini
Fosco Maraini, Dacia writer’s father, was an anthropologist, ethnologist, photographer, and writer. He went to Japan in his thirties to teach and to study the Ainu culture, indigenous to the Hokkaido island, and, at the time, scientifically discriminated against by the government by encouraging migration of ethnic Japanese to the island. Today, there are no more than 25.000 recognised Ainu people, although there are probably 200.000 Ainu descendants, mostly now assimilated into the Japanese culture. Fosco Maraini wrote a few books about his experience in Japan, including the period when he and his family were interned by the Japanese during the last years of WWII. His “Case, amori, universi” is a fascinating book, published years ago by Mondadori, and was impossible to find until ‘’La nave di Teseo’’ decided to reprint all Maraini’s books. It is a long book (750 pages), but you will still wish you had not finished reading it!
By coincidence, an exhibition of photos by Fosco Maraini, featuring over seventy photographic prints, including portraits, travel images and mountain landscapes, is currently on display at the Italian Cultural Institute in Belgrave Square until the 27th of March.
EXHIBITION
22 January – 27 March 2026
Monday – Friday | 10 am – 5 pm
At ICI London
Free entry. No booking is required
If you love writing, Il Circolo is organising the fifth edition of Match POinT, a literary competition for Italian speakers- here the info.
