Il talismano della felicità
Il talismano della felicità (; "The Talisman of Happiness" in English), written by magazine editor Ada Boni and published by Italian publishing house Editore Colombo, is a well-known Italian cookbook originally published in 1929. It is believed to be the first Italian cookbook specifically targeted to housewives, and along with the work of Pellegrino Artusi and Editoriale Domus' Il cucchiaio d'argento is considered one of the defining recipe and cooking-advice collections in Italian cuisine. It soon turned into a staple for generations of Italian women. The standard edition is 1054 pages long and was last  reissued in 1999; it was also available in an abridged version known as "Il piccolo Talismano" from the same publisher. When it was first published in 1928, it contained about 882 recipes; subsequent editions contained more than 2000 recipes. An extremely abridged translation, translated by Matilde La Rosa, who also added some "American-style" Italian recipes, with an introduction and glossary by Romance linguist Mario Pei, was published in 1950 as "The Talisman Italian Cookbook: Italy's Bestselling Cookbook Adapted for American Kitchens" (Crown/Random House, 1950). La Rosa and Pei decided to leave out recipes that were not of  Italian origin for the American edition, and also added a few Italian-American recipes that were felt at the time to be necessary in an Italian cookbook. The La Rosa translation is now out of print.