Ricardo Mella Cea (April 13, 1861 – August 7, 1925) is generally known in the English-speaking world as an anarchist collectivist, a proponent of anarchism without adjectives and, according to the testimony of various contemporaries and historians, one of the greatest anarchist theorists that the tradition has produced. But his work is still largely unknown, with only scattered translations available and with, it seems, some rather significant misunderstandings regarding his ideas pretty well incorporated in the general histories that are available.



As part of my work on the various initiatives that share an interest in synthesis, symbiosis, entente, toleration, etc. among anarchists, I began to assemble what I could find of Mella’s work—and quickly became fascinated with what I saw. But his output was considerable and spread across a wide variety of publishers and periodicals in a number of countries. The project for an Obras Completas, although launched with two very interesting volumes, remained unfinished, although an outline for an additional four volumes was published.

In the summer of 2017, I began to assemble the works designated for the Obras, as well as searching for those not specifically destined for any volume except perhaps the “Trabajos dispersos” of Vol. VI. I now have access to all but one of the named works and am working to transcribe those not yet available online. And I have started to post some draft translations of various works. My sense is that Mella’s body of work is indeed of a particular high quality and I have decided to pursue it a bit more systematically than I have some other projects. This page will be the hub for whatever comes from that pursuit.

About Mella and his work: