Fortunato Serantoni and the Sociological Library. The editorial circuit in the transnational militancy network of anarchism

Abstract

Buenos Aires was, in the passage of the nineteenth century for the twentieth century, one of the main centers for the edition and circulation of anarchist prints in the international arena. From the Argentine capital, newspapers, magazines, books, pamphlets and almanacs were sent to various cities in the world, and the same thing happened in the opposite direction: many written materials of the libertarian ideology came from the port. One of the main historical agents involved in this process was Fortunato Serantoni, a militant of anarchic communism from his youth in Florence, his native land. Later, Serantoni lived in Barcelona and acted in Catalan anarchism. Finally, he arrived in Buenos Aires in 1893 and developed a series of projects for the edition and circulation of printed matter, among which was the “Librería Sociológica”. This article intends to approach the biographical trajectory of Fortunato Serantoni and his actions in the universe of the edition and circulation, with emphasis in the “Librería Sociológica”, of which we will present his catalog. To reconstitute it, we collected the advertisements of books and pamphlets sold by Serantoni in the bookshop published in various newspapers of the time, beyond comparing the information with other investigations.
Finally, we emphasize the importance of understanding the editorial circuit, of which Serantoni was part, within the transnational network of ilitancy created by the anarchists.