What is Finisterrae?

Finisterrae is a publishing project started in Mantua, Italy, in mid 2004.
Its aim is to unearth forgotten texts of Latin and Italian literatures across the centuries, and to make them accessible for everyone everywhere in the world.


What does this name mean?

Libri Finisterrae is a Latin phrase, meaning "books from the borders of the world".
It is an appropriate name for giving an idea especially of today international health of Italian literature.
Though in the past Italian culture has been dominating the European stage for centuries, it is about two hundred years now it seems to become of more and more marginal importance and interest. As if it was really moving more and more to the borders of the world.


About Finisterrae books

Finisterrae is meant to offer English-speaking readers and scholars the opportunity to directly approach books from the millenary Latin and Italian literatures in their original languages.
All Finisterrae books are provided with:
- preface in English, explaining the history of the text and his author's,
- footnotes in English, helping better understand the Latin or Italian text,
- and, in some cases, parallel text translation into English.


Why Finisterrae, when there is already Amazon?

It is understood Finisterrae is not offering you Latin or Italian books you can already easily find in the Anglophone market.
We are not talking to you about Carlo Collodi's Pinocchio: it is already greatly known, as it is the second most translated book in the world, just after the Bible.
No, not this. Finisterrae is meant to let you discover extremely important texts and authors of Latin and Italian literatures across the centuries, still unknown to English-speaking readers.