Copyright and Licences

The last entry is il diritto di prima pubblicazione, and the noun inside it leads a second life that no dictionary article for « publication » prepares an English reader for. In the singular the two words match without a gap: la pubblicazione di un libro is the publication of a book, pubblicare is to publish, l’editore is the publisher. Put the Italian noun into the plural and drop the complement, though, and it will very often have nothing to do with printing at all. Le pubblicazioni, standing alone, are the banns of marriage: the notice displayed at the town hall before a wedding, which is why fare le pubblicazioni reports that two people have given notice and that the date is close. The plural is not reserved for that — an academic still says le mie pubblicazioni of a list of papers — so the surrounding words decide, and they usually decide plainly. What is worth carrying away is that a sentence about somebody’s pubblicazioni may be about a registry office, and that English has no single word doing both jobs.