Ultima grammatica Italiana-Inglese teorico-pratica - sesta edizione - con la relativa traduzione e pronuncia [,] metodo perfezionato per facilmente imparare la lingua inglese senza maestro [The latest Italian-English theoretical and practical grammar - sixth edition - with the relative translation and pronunciation, [by a] method perfected for easily learning the English language without a teacher]. [Francesco Zanolini]: [New York], 1903 [1890].
Title
Ultima grammatica Italiana-Inglese teorico-pratica - sesta edizione - con la relativa traduzione e pronuncia [,] metodo perfezionato per facilmente imparare la lingua inglese senza maestro [The latest Italian-English theoretical and practical grammar - sixth edition - with the relative translation and pronunciation, [by a] method perfected for easily learning the English language without a teacher]. [Francesco Zanolini]: [New York], 1903 [1890].
Description
While his name does not appear on the cover, title page or verso of the title page, this particular grammar can safely be ascribed to Francesco Zanolini, first, because on the front and rear paste-down and free endpapers, salmon-colored full page advertisements for other works Zanolini published (or his telegraphic, money-changing and notarial services are advertised), and for his Libreria Economica Italiana; likewise for the rear cover.
We know, too, from his ads of the 1890s in Il Progresso Italo-Americano that Zanolini developed his own grammar, and that his bookstore (Libreria Economica Italiana) was on Spring Street in Manhattan. Hence my educated guess is that this work was printed by Zanolini for sale at his Libreria Economica Italiana, though the book itself does not reflect those names as publisher or author.
One of the ads here in the book claims inaccurately that his "manuale di chiromanzia" - a very popular type of self-help book, q.v. a copy of which is in the collection - is the "only book printed in Italian in the United States."
By the time the Manuale di Chiromanzia was published, other works had been published and printed in Italian in America.
First copyrighted in 1890, just at the end of the Augusto Bassetti years (1885-1890), Zanolini's appears to be, by my reckoning, therefore probably the second native (i.e., not imported) grammar for immigrant Italians wanting to learn English (but having to learn Italian in order to follow the instructions). I say "probably" because publisher Francesco Frugone also seems to have developed a grammar in that period, although the Collection lacks a copy.
On the verso of the title page, the copyright of 1890, and renewals of 1898, 1901 and 1909, are noted. This "sesta edizione" [sixth edition], while undated, is presumably one or two after the fourth edition of 1909, though by how many years is anyone's guess, probably sometime in that or the next decade.
As did Bassetti, and as did the authors of several of the other books teaching readers the English language and published in New York after Zanolini would promise, Zanolini boasted that one could learn English from his grammar "senza maestro," that is, without a teacher.
This was a great selling point for immigrant Italians who usually worked by day and could not attend classes then. The phrase "senza maestro" was a major selling point used by Bassetti before Zanolini, and used after Zanolini by others. As Camillo Cianfarra's semi-fictional immigrant put it (in Il diario di un emigrato, q.v.):
"Every evening I go home tired, exhausted, and above all I can't see anything but . . [things from work that] I have begun to hate with a passion. Books that were so dear to me lie dusty on the table. The old desire to read has left me. Learning English means studying night and day, and in order to study it is necessary to have that peace of mind that allows one to concentrate without being disturbed by other thoughts."
We know, too, from his ads of the 1890s in Il Progresso Italo-Americano that Zanolini developed his own grammar, and that his bookstore (Libreria Economica Italiana) was on Spring Street in Manhattan. Hence my educated guess is that this work was printed by Zanolini for sale at his Libreria Economica Italiana, though the book itself does not reflect those names as publisher or author.
One of the ads here in the book claims inaccurately that his "manuale di chiromanzia" - a very popular type of self-help book, q.v. a copy of which is in the collection - is the "only book printed in Italian in the United States."
By the time the Manuale di Chiromanzia was published, other works had been published and printed in Italian in America.
First copyrighted in 1890, just at the end of the Augusto Bassetti years (1885-1890), Zanolini's appears to be, by my reckoning, therefore probably the second native (i.e., not imported) grammar for immigrant Italians wanting to learn English (but having to learn Italian in order to follow the instructions). I say "probably" because publisher Francesco Frugone also seems to have developed a grammar in that period, although the Collection lacks a copy.
On the verso of the title page, the copyright of 1890, and renewals of 1898, 1901 and 1909, are noted. This "sesta edizione" [sixth edition], while undated, is presumably one or two after the fourth edition of 1909, though by how many years is anyone's guess, probably sometime in that or the next decade.
As did Bassetti, and as did the authors of several of the other books teaching readers the English language and published in New York after Zanolini would promise, Zanolini boasted that one could learn English from his grammar "senza maestro," that is, without a teacher.
This was a great selling point for immigrant Italians who usually worked by day and could not attend classes then. The phrase "senza maestro" was a major selling point used by Bassetti before Zanolini, and used after Zanolini by others. As Camillo Cianfarra's semi-fictional immigrant put it (in Il diario di un emigrato, q.v.):
"Every evening I go home tired, exhausted, and above all I can't see anything but . . [things from work that] I have begun to hate with a passion. Books that were so dear to me lie dusty on the table. The old desire to read has left me. Learning English means studying night and day, and in order to study it is necessary to have that peace of mind that allows one to concentrate without being disturbed by other thoughts."
Creator
Francesco Zanolini
Format
21x15cm; 320 p.
Citation
Francesco Zanolini, “Ultima grammatica Italiana-Inglese teorico-pratica - sesta edizione - con la relativa traduzione e pronuncia [,] metodo perfezionato per facilmente imparare la lingua inglese senza maestro [The latest Italian-English theoretical and practical grammar - sixth edition - with the relative translation and pronunciation, [by a] method perfected for easily learning the English language without a teacher]. [Francesco Zanolini]: [New York], 1903 [1890].,” Italian-Language American Imprints: The Periconi Collection, accessed April 30, 2024, https://italianamericanimprints.omeka.net/items/show/446.
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