Un νόμος sibaritico e i brevetti d’invenzione

The starting point for our study is the reading of a reflection by Giacomo Leopardi to be found in his Zibaldone:“Invention patents were not unknown in the ancient republics”.
This affirmation stems from the reading of a passage in the Deipnosophists by Athenaeus of Naucratis. This is the part where Athenaeus mentions a passage he had read in the Histories of Phylarchus and which is presented here in a new interpretation.