Introduction

Summary

Biographical Notes

The purpose of this short introductory chapter is to familiarize the reader with Gustavo Del Vecchio by furnishing some biographical details, offering some early notes on his views and briefly describing the cultural environment in which his thought matured. This is followed by a general outline of the book.

Gustavo Del Vecchio was born on 22 June 1883 to Cesare and Bice Cavalieri at Lugo di Romagna, a small town with an ancient Jewish community near Ravenna (Italy). His uncle, Giulio Salvatore Del Vecchio, was an economist and statistician, but Gustavo seems not to have been influenced by him, and he never cited his work. As a consequence of his father's murder in 1888, his family moved to Bologna, where Del Vecchio received his primary and secondary education. In 1900, Del Vecchio enrolled at the Faculty of Law, La Sapienza University of Rome, where he also attended courses on political economy and statistics. Moreover, he studied philosophy of history under Antonio Labriola, a philosopher, first Hegelian and then Marxian, whose influence explains Del Vecchio's youthful interests in Marx and historical materialism. Indeed, although Del Vecchio was a true liberal economist, an interest in Marx's analyses can be detected in all his work.

Del Vecchio then returned to Bologna, where he continued his studies until he graduated in law in 1904.