Editing Historiography: A Few Introductory Words

The paper addresses the issue of the edition of texts, that is, how texts should be edited, and identifies the text as an object of investigation in its own right also beyond its material aspects. In a time when materiality appears to be the only viewpoint allowed to look at manuscripts, a merit of this workshop is that of underlining the central importance of the texts as such. There is no need to stress that inclusion of material aspects makes a great contribution to textual studies, that material aspects should be considered, and that the authorial contribution in copying and transmitting is an essential factor that cannot be ignored. In the end, however, there are principles which frame every process of manuscript transmission and which pose the existence of earlier and later stages of the text, which cannot be ignored, whatever we want to call them.