ABSTRACT
In a paper published in 2003, Giancarlo de Vivo (2003: 1) aimed ‘to reconstruct as far as possible the path [Sraffa] followed in the research which led him to reach the remarkable results’ published in his 1960 book (Sraffa, 1960). De Vivo was one of the first scholars venturing to publish his findings and interpretation of some of the highly complex material under consideration.1 He deserves credit for having provided others with some guidance on how the material might perhaps be interpreted and how its different pieces might hang together, even though parts of what he has written might eventually turn out to be untenable. There would be nothing surprising in this in view of a subject matter as difficult as the one under consideration. To De Vivo’s credit it has also to be mentioned that he is careful to express his uncertainty and reservation as to the interpretation put forward by him. He even claims that ‘work like the present one can never aim at being definitive’ and ‘that others may provide a partially or entirely different reconstruction of that path’. He adds:
The writing of a paper like this must necessarily be like the piecing together of a jigsaw puzzle, with the added difficulty that many of the pieces must be left out. It is therefore by no means impossible that using different pieces, a partly or entirely different picture may be put together.
