The first book on the Italian translation industry

Gianni Davico has done it. He has succeeded in publishing in Italy the very first book on the translation industry. The most important thing is that this book deals with the Italian translation industry, although it also took as reference the situation in the other countries.

The short "introduction" is important in order to draw a clear framework for the information included in this book.

Davico's book has a typical academic structure. The reader will find some historical information about translation companies in Italy. The reason for this is quite clear. In Italy, although the translation industry is as segmented as in the other countries, the translation companies or "agenzie di traduzione — translation agencies," as defined by Davico, have the highest visibility. I personally do not like the word agency because it gives clients a wrong idea. In Italy, we talk about translation companies as imprese di traduzione, which is a better term, in order to highlight also the professionalism and systematic approach of the entrepreneurs.

After explaining the historical background on the basis of three examples, in the second chapter Davico defines the different types of translation service providers present in Italy. Without going into detail, I would like to highlight some elements that are typical for the Italian market.

Davico sticks to his definition of agenzie (agencies), and this does not constitute a favor to the industry. Although I work in a completely different market, the Finnish one, I know Italy (my homeland) very well, and I know that national entrepreneurs talk about companies and not about agencies.

In this chapter Davico explains the differences but also the points in common of the different types of providers — for example, the difficulties in finding sufficient funds in order to finance the growth of the companies; the segmentation of the market; and the focus on project management.

The functions managed by the multiple language vendors are always the same and are extremely familiar to professionals. Nevertheless, I think that in doing this, Davico correctly takes into consideration the fact that this book will also be read by students. For this reason I think that the definition of the different types of translation service providers is extremely useful and important.

Another extremely interesting chapter of this book is the one concerning the definition of the professions and processes of our industry. This chapter could be seen as the key one. I appreciate the fact that Davico clearly states that project managers are the heart and soul of the translation company and also of the translation process. I regret that in our industry we talk mainly about translators, programmers, localizers and so on but not enough about project managers. I believe that in Italy — but not only there — universities will start to organize courses for this extremely important profession. Once again, this chapter will be a must for the newcomers to our industry and for the students who see in the universities only a small and often antiquated part of it.

As the current chairman of EUATC (European Union of Associations of Translation Companies, http://www.euatc.org), I especially appreciate the section concerning quality certification. Davico has inserted in this section a clear reference to the new European standard prEN 15038 (the standard has not yet been approved) that our association initiated many years ago. "Translation Service — Service Requirements" is the name of this new standard. In this section Davico not only refers to the standard, but also describes its key elements.

In the final part of his book, Davico tries to open a logical path through the jungle of the national and international associations. I only regret the fact that Davico forgot to mention one of the oldest and most active associations of translation companies — the Finnish one (over 25 years of activities).

Conclusions and comments. Although we all know that once a book on the translation industry is printed it is already old, Davico succeeds in future-orienting his publication. Because of the still low level of maturity of the Italian market (providers and clients), this book should be recommended to all professionals of our industry and also to the buyers of translation services. The style of the book is suitable for both.

In addition, I think that it must be a great source of information for the student.

I truly hope that Davico within a few years might publish a new edition of this book, informing us about newer developments in the industry.