The unique contributions of Vilfredo Pareto (1848–1923) to mathematical economics as well as sociopolitical theory were predicated on a remarkable background and education. The son of Raffaele Pareto (a minor Italian noble, civil engineer, political refugee, repatriated professor, and then government minister) and a Frenchwoman, Marie Métenier, Fritz Wilfried Pareto (renamed in 1882 Vilfredo Frederico Damaso Pareto, ultimately the Marchese of Parigi), was born in Paris on July 15. The household was bilingual, but after his father's political safety was assured, the family removed to his native Genoa (1855–1859); spent several years in Casale Monferrato, Piedmont, so his father could improve his professional position as a government administrator of mines and industry; then went to Turin; and finally settled in Florence. In 1889 Pareto married Alessandrina "Dina" Bakounine (Bakunin; not from the anarchist's family), who left him in 1901. He lived with Jeanne Régis from 1906 and married her in 1923 (after...