Digital Editions in the Practice of Authorial Philology. Proposals for the Case of Giacomo Leopardi’s Canti

Abstract

The essay proposes an XML/TEI encoding model and a visualization prototype for a digital genetic edition of Giacomo Leopardi’s Canti, with the Idilli serving as a case study. Building on the editorial principles of the established critical editions (Gavazzeni 2009; Italia 2016), it addresses the challenges posed by a mixed manuscript and print tradition, as well as the need to represent analytically, in a digital environment, the diachrony of authorial revisions.

The model combines the formalization of variants across witnesses (two autographs and five printed editions) with a structured account of the manuscripts’ internal genesis. It makes explicit the distinction between large-scale revision campaigns, identifiable through the different pens used by Leopardi, and discrete phases of intervention affecting specific textual segments, ordered sequentially. In this way, the encoding preserves the informational density of the critical-genetic apparatus while enabling dynamic and multi-layered access to the textual tradition.

Finally, the paper argues that the transition from the printed apparatus to the digital edition entails interpretative choices and a reconfiguration of the data. Rather than a mechanical transfer, it requires the definition of an ad hoc editorial model capable of combining philological rigor, interoperability, and long-term sustainability.