Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Author-Name: Massimo M. Augello
Author-Email:
Author-Workplace-Name: Università di Pisa - Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche
Author-Name: Marco E. L. Guidi
Author-Email:
Author-Workplace-Name: Università di Pisa - Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche
Title: La scienza economica come 'dottrina'. Manuali e trattati di economia politica nell'Italia liberale (1840-1922)
(Political economy as a doctrine: manuals and treatises of economics in italy in the liberal age (1840-1922))
Abstract: The paper illustrates the evolution of manuals of political economy in the period between 1840, the
year of publication of Antonio Scialoja’s Principj della economia sociale, and 1922, the date which marks
the end of the liberal age. A cursory overview and a bibliographical study highlight the overall dimension
of this literature, the different nature of works, the goals attributed to them and the public
to which they were addressed. The paper examines both the main manuals and treatises of political
economy, and a large number of minor works, popularisations, and lecture notes, which accompanied
the multiplication of university courses in this discipline. The authors of these texts were both
the main economists of the period and a host of obscurer scholars, philanthropists and school teachers.
The amount of works published in this period of political unification reveals that in Italy there
was a pervasive ‘need’ of political economy, considered as a discipline that could educate the younger 
generations destined to administrate the main institutions of the country, to orientate public opinion,
and to enlighten the working classes.
Classification-JEL: B10
Keywords: Italia; XIX secolo; manuali; istituzionalizzazione dell’economia politica 
(Italy; i9th century; manuals; institutionalisation of political economy)
Journal: Il Pensiero Economico Italiano
Pages: 37-73
Volume: 14
Issue: 1
Year: 2006
File-URL: https://www.libraweb.net/articoli.php?chiave=200606301&rivista=63
Handle: RePEc:pei:journl:v:14:y:2006:1:4:p:37-73