GENERAL INFORMATIONS

Thus the first step must involve a review and correction of the existing bibliographic data as the descriptions of translations we have at our disposal are misleading and incomplete as well as unreliable in terms of factual exactness (dates, authors’ names, languages, etc.). No list of editions is available, and as the translations, in many cases, were not done from Polish (contrary to declarations), it is necessary to revise the translation texts meticulously. M. and M. Bersano Begey provide an approximate survey of editions published up to 1984 while the data on later translations can be reconstructed based on Literatura polska w przekładach [Polish literature in translation] published by the National Library and, first of all, on searching the resources of Italian libraries. Given the specific Italian library practices (considerable dispersal and heterogeneity of collections, a lack of any central register of journal contents, etc.), the latter will require intense research in multiple Italian libraries to identify and examine all available translations. By the mid-20th century, over 200 (!) new editions of the novel had been released, as reported by L. Marinelli, “Sulla fortuna di Sienkiewicz in Italia e in Russia. Appunti sparsi per una tipologia della recezione” (in Polonia, Italia e culture slave. Aspetti comparati tra storia e contemporaneità, L. Marinelli, M. Piacentini and K. Żaboklicki [eds.], Varsavia–Roma: Oświata, 1997, pp. 162–173).