The centenary of Maffeo Pantaleoni’s death offers an opportunity to reflect on the significance and enduring legacy of this influential economic thinker. To truly grasp the relevance of his contributions, we must begin by acknowledging that Pantaleoni played a pivotal role in enabling Italy’s academic context to break free from its peripherality and fully engage with the key economic debates of his time. His work in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was instrumental in placing Italian economists among the foremost thinkers in the emerging field of marginalist economics.