In reply to jcw:
Yet the Italian Alpine Club, CAI, was founded in 1863 under an Italian language name. And even if the 1860s were a time of political turmoil until full reunification in 1871, why wait another sixty years to translate the first book on their Cervino ?
I have just rediscovered on my shelves a small 1935 card-backed CAI published manual on Alpinism, 260 pages. ALPINISMO by Renato Chabod and Giusto Gervasutti. They were two good friends, born in1909, and very active hard climbers. The first 32 pages are a long and full quote in Italian from Mummery, his entire last chapter entitled On the Pleasures and Penalties of Mountaineering. Joint author Chabod also drew the vigorous sketches to illustrate movement on rock, 12 point crampons, variations of the classical abseil, ironmongery etc - standing on partner's shoulders for extra height; or kneeling if wearing crampons. Gervasutti, as is well known, died in 1946 when trying to release a jammed abseil rope. Chabod went on to become a politician and die in 1990. My Climbs in the Alps and the Caucasus had already appeared in Italian in 1930.