Acknowledgments
Between May 2012 and October 2015 Bernard Mandeville’s thought was publicly debated at eight international conferences held in Fribourg, Princeton, Coimbra, Wassenaar, Rotterdam, Helsinki, Rome and Riga.1 Since the 1720s Mandeville’s writings had not been addressed with so much attention. The conferences took place to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the publication of The Fable of the Bees (1714). The present volume stems from the ideas heard and discussed during these encounters and from research developed over several decades.
My interest in Bernard Mandeville dates back to my undergraduate years. Like many of my colleagues, almost a generation of Italian scholars, my research interests and methods were influenced by the works and the activity of my mentor at the Department of Philosophy of the Università degli Studi di Roma ‘La Sapienza’, Eugenio Lecaldano. Along with his work on the foundations of contemporary ethics – its problems and its solutions – in the eighteenth-century British moral debate and the project of a ‘science of man’, Eugenio offered consistent encouragement over many years. Dario Castiglione, Paola Zanardi, Giancarlo Carabelli, Emanuela Scribano, Tito Magri and Nadia Boccara helped me in my early research on the elusive Dutch Physician and on the context of eighteenth-century British moral philosophy. Eugenio Lecaldano’s and Luigi Turco’s great willingness to discuss and exchange ideas was of great support and encouragement for my PhD dissertation.
A milestone in the progression of my work on Bernard Mandeville was my encounter with Irwin Primer in 1998. His unceasing curiosity, generous availability, and effort to create and maintain a community of Mandeville scholars, together with his friendship and tireless support are among the reasons for the very existence of this book. Over the years, I have greatly profited from many conversations about Mandeville with colleagues and scholars: Malcom Jack, Markku Peltonen, Mikko Tolonen, Paul Russell, Atis Zakatistovs, Andrea Gatti, Martin Otero Knott, Spyros Tegos, Rui Bertrand Romao, Joaquim Braga, Emilio Mazza, Francesca Pongiglione, Elena Muceni, Lorenzo Greco and Simone Pollo. Special thanks go to Mauro Simonazzi, a great scholar, but overall a great friend, who is always ready to engage in a conversation on Bernard Mandeville.
I would like to express my deepest appreciation to the anonymous reviewers of my manuscript and to Han van Ruler, the series editor-in-chief, together with Brill’s staff, especially Arjan van Dijk and Ivo Romein, for their valuable advice and for their support and confidence in my project.
My heartfelt thanks go to the librarians who helped me in the last years of research, in particular Elisabetta Morani and Livia Piotto at the Frohring Library and the staff at the Biblioteca di Storia Moderna e Contemporanea di Roma. I owe a great debt of gratitude to those who have helped me to revise my English: Portia Prebys, Elly Nagaoka Ricci, Nuha Elizabeth Ansari, Simon Martin, Kate Russell, Silvia Esposito and Robert Martin.
I would also like to thank my parents for raising me in a house full of books and for supporting and encouraging me to pursue a proper intellectual education. I sometimes wonder if they ever regretted it, particularly when they were forced to read my Italian translation of Mandeville’s Enquiry into the Origin of Honour to check its quality and ended up calling their dogs Mandeville, Locke, Hobbes & Hume (Hobbes was the kindest and gentlest of them all). Finally, I wish to thank all the dear friends who having been exposed to my boundless interest over the years, asked the most intriguing and challenging questions even when out of boredom or despair: thank you to Claudio Carbonaro, Anna Falcone, Benjamin Martin, Mila Manasse, Massimo Sangermano, Simon Martin, Chiara Luti, Querciolo Mazzonis, Luca Rufino, Piyal Thiththalapitige and especially my sister, the late Anna Branchi, to whom this book is dedicated.
Mandeville in Context, Philosophy Department, University of Fribourg, Switzerland (May 25– 26, 2012); Scottish Reactions to Mandeville, Princeton Theological Seminar, Princeton, NJ, (March 2013); Eutopia Seated in the Brain, University of Coimbra, Portugal (November 27–29, 2013); Mandeville’s Moral and Political Thought in its Historical Context, Netherlands Institute For Advanced Study, Wassenaar, The Netherlands (June 3–5, 2014); 300 years Mandeville’s “Fable of the Bees”. Science, Politics, and Economy. The Unintended Consequences of a Diabolic Paradox, Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam, The Netherlands (June 6, 2014); “Unusual emptiness of the title-page” – Bernard Mandeville’s Fable of the Bees in Helsinki, Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, University of Helsinki (June 12–14, 2014); Mandeville in Rome. Mandevillean Readings, Koninklijk Nederlands Instituut in Rome; The American University of Rome (September 4–6, 2014); Mandeville in Latvia. Mandevillean Readings, Riga Business School, Institute for Environmental Solutions, Latvia (October 8–11, 2015).