I tried getting through the Russian text of the book here at linkq a while ago, I remember it being very hard going, even though I’d read the english version before. I’d still be interested in an audio version in Russian if it was around.
Thankyou Niksa for the link.
I have read the first 12th and it seems interesting, written in a jolly style.
I don’t think it’s particularly “industry specific”, I think a lot of people would enjoy it if they got started.
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mikebond, Sorry to be so discouraging. (apropos of which, http://www.translatorscafe.com/cafe/MegaBBS/thread-view.asp?threadid=12774 )
I think it’s a great idea to translate the book, especially because it sounds like you really would enjoy doing it. If I had intermediate knowledge of Italian, I’d for sure like to try to read it, and especially to listen to it. Perhaps someone whose works are in the public domain would do almost as well, such as Giuseppe Mezzofanti. I don’t know if he wrote much, but he would have written in Italian or Latin, and you know them both.
Niksa, Thanks for the link to the Russian version.
Have you read this? (Как стать полиглотом, “How to Become a Polyglot,” by Д. Л. Спивак, D. L. Spivak)
http://bookz.ru/authors/dmitrii-spivak/kak-stat_637.html
I have not, yet, as I am trying to listen to everything I read in Russian right now, but it sure looks good.
Steve, I think you’re right about how popular audiobooks are here, unfortunately. Myself, I think they’re great. It’s nice that nowadays Russian audiobooks can be bought fairly easily in North America (and they are much cheaper than English-language audiobooks). In my case, since I pore over audiobooks for purposes of study, the “entertainment value” of the dollar spent is enormous. 
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As far as I know, Mezzofanti didn’t write anything on language learning. I started reading his biography on the HTLAL site but got bored very soon.
I thought it would be easy for the LingQ admins to get in touch with the publisher of the English translation of “Polyglot”, but I was wrong…
“apropos of which, http://www.translatorscafe.com/cafe/MegaBBS/thr… )”
This is in contrast with the advice I’ve been given by some Italian publishers, i.e. to translate a book and then submit the first chapter(s) to a publisher to see if they are interested. Are all Italian professors and publishers really so ignorant?
Anyway, this is off topic.
You are aware of the issue, and I’ll say no more. If it were me, I would work on a translation right away, if for no other reason than to see how feasible it would be to prepare one. If we are fortunate, LingQ will secure permission to put a translation online, as you suggested, and it would then be available to everyone studying Italian here.
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Thanks Ernie! I remember about 4 or 5 years back, before being able to speak Russian, wanting to read как стать полиглотом when it was brought up in the HTLAL forums. After studying Russian, I absent-mindedly forgot all about the book!
djc463, You’re welcome. It looks like it will be worth reading. I’m waiting until I finish the audiobook-reading phase I in the middle of before I read it through, however. I think it was on HTLAL forums that I heard about it, too…