No. 5/I (2020): Editions' Stories

PEML 5/I (2020), a number dedicated to Editions' stories, is the result of a call for papers promoted in January 2019 by this magazine.

The text that we propose below offers a theoretical and methodological premise to the volume and defines the idea which led to the contributions we are now publishing.

Each ecdotic practice aim at the construction of an edition, which above all reflects the choices of the editor (whether he is a scholar, a professional editor, a collaborator of a typographer or of a publishing house, depending on the era that we consider). Moreover, the fact that the published text comes from an author still alive or from the past is a very relevant aspect. For these reasons, each edition has its own specific characteristics, with a history of choices, critical hypotheses, comparisons with other prints and, sometimes, errors. It is also important to identify the cultural and literary context of the text and its readers.

In order to highlight these aspects, which are essential to reconstruct the story of texts and books and to the philological or editorial paths that lead to a publication, the present number of our review hosts contributions which concern "Editions' stories". The different scholars here involved paid particular attention to the condition of the author, the literary tradition, the reception of books (on a scientific or a reading level), the relationships with other editions of the same work and, finally, the role of the editions in the transmission of a text.