Piero Sraffa and the Preservation of Antonio Gramsci’s Notebooks

The paper illustrates Sraffa’s contribution to the preservation of Gramsci’s notebooks. Available evidence shows that he indirectly supported Gramsci’s sister-in-law, Tatjana Schucht, when she brought the notebooks from the clinic where Gramsci had died to the Soviet embassy, and that he may have suggested her to record the order in which she had found them. On the other hand, soon after Gramsci’s death, Sraffa outlined a scheme for the publication of the notebooks: first an edition based on a selection of Gramsci’s writings, then a complete and annotated edition – this is what was actually done from the late 1940s, when publication actually started, to the 1970s, when a critical edition was published, to present days Edizione nazionale of Gramsci’s writings.