Emilio Treves

Early years

Emilio Salomone Trèves was born on the 31 December, 1834, to Lia Montalcini and Sabato Graziadio Trèves, the Chief Rabbi of Trieste. Lia Montalcini had three daughters from the first marriage: Annetta, Esterina and Rosa. With Sabato, she had three sons: Enrico Michele, Emilio Salomone and the youngest, Giuseppe Emanuele. Trèves attended the Jewish elementary school and the Royal Imperial Gymnasium of Trieste, but there is no record of him pursuing a regular university education (the title ‘Dr’ E. Treves appears only rarely in later documents).

Trèves emerged as a writer at a very young age, he debuted with a drama entitled Ricchezza e miseria (Wealth and Misery), written between 1848 and 1851. His second literary work, the five-act historical drama Il duca di Enghien (The Duke of Enghien), was published in 1853. The play was banned by the Austrian censors because it clearly expressed opposition to Austrian rule and called for the restoration of Trieste’s Italian identity. Trèves was actively involved in the anti-Habsburg unrest in Trieste at that time. When in 1853 his elder brother Enrico Michele was arrested and sentenced to 4 years in prison for keeping anti-Austrian publications, Trèves left Trieste and moved to Paris.

The bustling life of the French capital influenced him and his tastes greatly: he frequented literary salons and cafes, editorial offices and publishing houses, learning the trade of journalism and publishing. The magazine Musée de Famille inspired him for what later became his first publication as a publisher in Milan, Museo di famiglia illustrated periodical. He lived in Paris for two years; to earn a living, he gave private lessons of Italian language, contributed to the compilation of Italian-French dictionaries, and worked for the newspaper Courrier franco-italien.

In June 1856 his father died, and in the autumn of that same year Trèves briefly rejoined his family in Trieste, then left again – first to Fiume, where he worked at Eco di Fiume under Giovanni Spagnolo, then to Udine. In 1858, Trèves arrived in Milan and started working at Gazzetta Ufficiale di Milano, first as a translator, then as an art and literary critic. Upon getting more experienced, he headed Uomo di Pietra, a magazine founded back in 1856. As a columnist, he wrote for Uomo di Pietra under the pseudonym Il Piovano. After some time, Trèves was appointed political editor of the Gazzetta d'Italia, which was, however, shut down before it began publication. In 1859, Trèves joined Garibaldi and volunteered for the Cacciatori delle Alpi in 1859, eventually rising to the rank of sergeant. He took part in numerous military operations against the Austrians.

In the late 1850s in Milan, he met Suzette Thompson, a young Englishwoman who had come to Italy to study music. He married Suzette in London on June 1, 1863. Their only daughter, Maria, was born in 1864.

Friends and colleagues recalled him as a tireless worker who only slept five hours a day, from 22 PM to 2 AM. He was very straightforward and had earned the nickname “ogre,” which suited him well also given his physical appearance. In 1889, when Trèves met Gabriele D’Annunzio for the first time, the two became close friends immediately. They lost contact for a while when in 1891 Trèves refused to publish The Intruder, but rekindled in 1893. They stayed close for more than 20 years, the preserved correspondence shows that their relationship went beyond the professional sphere, and Treves often forgave his friend for his complaints about fees, advances and contracts.

He never allowed himself to show weakness; his colleagues recalled a rare incident when Trèves arrived at the editorial office one morning and, upon seeing a manuscript on his desk from an author named Gotta, exclaimed, ‘I will never publish an author with a surname like that!’ (In Italian, “gotta” means gout.) In reality, Trèves suffered from a severe form of gout and was often plagued by pain.

Trèves died in Milan on 30 January, 1916. His death was symbolic of the end of an era: that of pioneering and romantic Italian publishing, which was to be replaced by the industrial logic of the 20th century. The mark left by Trèves on Italian publishing remains indelible, as he helped lay the foundations upon which Italian culture would develop in the following century.