The Il Mulino publishing company was established in June 1954 on the initiative of the group promoting the magazine "il Mulino", which had started publishing in Bologna in 1951.
Since its inception, the publisher's goal has been to contribute to the development and modernization of Italian culture, through a program of publications that drew significantly from the Anglo-Saxon social sciences, and which was inspired by an explicitly empirical and reformist approach. This purpose has never failed, and has been pursued in the context of a gradually increasing variety of disciplinary areas (history, philosophy, linguistics, literary criticism, demography, anthropology, psychology, sociology, political science, economics and law).
The Mulino's publications include an extensive catalog of magazines, covering the entire range of interests of the publisher, and a rich production of books with a distinctly differentiated profile. In fact, part of the editorial programs is given by reference and research texts, aimed in particular at the community of scholars. Another important editorial director is identified in the volumes of an instrumental nature, intended for university study and teaching. Furthermore, in recent years, series aimed at the non-specialized public have been particularly developed, through which the most innovative and current cultural research and acquisitions are addressed to public discussion.
Il Mulino Publishing Company is a joint stock company whose capital majority refers to the "il Mulino" Association of culture and politics, a non-profit association established in 1965 by the group of editors of the magazine "il Mulino" to institutionally organize the group itself.