Italy

The Italian Brains Benton editions were published by Arnoldo Mondadori, the large publishing house also responsible for the printing and binding of the 'Mini-Golden' editions released in France, Great Britain and Germany.

These editions were released more or less simultaneously with the French releases, so it is not surprising that the illustrations were handled by Frenchman Jacques Pecnard and Italian artist Beniamino Bodini.

To date only five of the six covers have have surfaced, due to the scarcity of these editions on the second-hand market. These show that the original retail price of the books was 250 lira.

1. Missing Message	2. Counterfeit Coin	3. Stolen Dummy

4. Roving Rolls	5. Waltzing Mouse	6. Painted Dragon

 
Translated into Italian by: Graziella Ortolani (MM), Roberto Brunelli (CC), Alberto Zerbi (SD), Giulia Malesani (RR),
Luigi Ramponi (WM), Lucia Fantoni Modena (PD).

The database of the Italian National Library has been invaluable in filling out the sketchy picture we have of Brains Benton in this country. Although Missing Message is erroneously credited to George Wyatt in the book itself, the library records rightly list Charles S. Verral as the author.

 Above left: The full cover of Waltzing Mouse. Above right: Waltzing Mouse title page.

The Benton and Carson branding, present on the front covers of most of the French and German editions, is sadly absent from the Italian releases.

Above: The copyright information from the Italian edition of Waltzing Mouse.

The copyright pages in the Italian editions reveal that the books were published under license from Western Publishing.