Bibliografia testuale o filologia dei testi a stampa? Definizioni metodologiche e prospettive future. Convegno di studi in onore di Conor Fahy (Udine 24-25-26 febbraio 1997) by Neil Harris (review)

Abstract

Reviews 848 RolandBarthes. Underthedisillusioning title 'Useless Passions', Margaret Atack reveals, with special reference toLes jtustes Causes andLes Mandartns, the intellectuals' evolving attitudes towards theLiberation. Thepost-War novelistheconcern of DavidCoward. Asurvey ofMarguerite Duras's early life, including her membership ofthe'Comite depropagande a labananefran jcaise' aswellasherexpulsion from theCommunist Party, prefaces anaccount ofthedevelopment ofherfiction until 'autobiography, stripped ofanecdote, isinteriorized'. Aspects ofSartre are, fittingly, discussed in a number ofessays. Lynette R. Muirsympathetically presents the neglected Bariona, suggesting parallels with Sartre's later treatment ofclassical myth. ObeyandtheQuinzemaymerit a placebeside theTheophiliens among possible influences onthe play. Thedifficult, intriguing topic ofSartre's flirtation with radio iswellhandled byChristopher Todd,though hisremark that 'theIndochinese war is seenas a form ofgangrene which placedFrance[...] in thehandsofthe Americans' isinfelicitous. Decolonization isalsoatissue inDavidMacey's account ofintellectual civil warinvolving Nizan, Fanon andSartre. Intheelegant 'Cuvier's Bone'IanMagedera explores Derrida's Glasandthepost-Saint Genet JeanGenet, andJames Dolamore shows the contrary Ionesco standing firm against theSartrean tide andmuch elsebesides. James Dryhurst argues for ClaudeMichelet's LaJtZUit de Calama, andDavidPlatten, incomparatist vein, brings outantagonisms between French film andHollywood. MaxSilverman closes hismeditation oncontemporary civilization somewhat glumly: 'freedom ofthecity inthenewmillennium willstill bestrictly limited tothe privileged few' unless a newlanguage isfound to'promote newforms ofsolidarity across diXerences'. Thisvolume honours itsdedicatee byreflecting hisinterests inFrench thought, especially initspolitical implications, with the verve andvigour that wasthestamp ofhispassionate enquiry. Making Connections will, moreover, bereadnotonly for the quality oftheindividual essays butalsobecause itisthevery image ofa significant branch ofFrench studies inpost-War Britain. UNIVERSITY OFEAST ANGLIA CHRISTOPRER SMITH Bibliografia testuale oflologia dei testi a stampa? Definizioni metodologiche eprospettive future. Convegno distudi inonore diConor Fahy (Udine 24-e5-26febbraio I997). Ed.by NEILHARRIS. Udine: Forum.I999. 363pp. 50,000 lire. A laurea adhonorem conferred uponConorFahyistheunderlying motivation and crowning event ofthis collection ofproceedings. TheFacolta diLettere e Filosofia oftheUniversita diUdinebrought together inI997a group ofItalian scholars of thehistory ofthebooktocelebrate boththecareer ofthisdistinguished British scholar ofprinted bookconservation and theinstitution in Italyofacademic curricula pertinent in thesamefield.The speechdelivered by Fahyrapidly summarizes the history ofbook conservation inthe English speaking world pointing outthe differences andsimilarities with Lachmann's method sooften usedinItalian philology. Theresulting bookbecomes a practical guidetophilology andbibliography as Fahyhimself hadenvisaged. Barbieri offiers a concrete example andsuggestions, especially inthecontrastampe oroisets, ornumerous micro-variants, encountered in theprinted editions ofthePassione attributed toPulciorthefourteenth-century Sienese poetCicerchia. Cuna,instead, very interestingly traces thedevelopment of the first Greek texts printed before the days ofAldoManuzio. Just asilluminating is thepaperbyMarcoVilloresi onMichelangelo diCristofano daVolterra. Villoresi succinctly points outjusthowmuch information canbegleaned concerning both MLR,96.3,200 I 849 theauthor's psychological makeup andcertain intellectual orwould-be intellectual groups, evenfrom a printed bookof'grezza cosmesi editoriale'. Theproduction at handwasobviously destined for the'pubblico dipalatogrosso' which consumed practically any re-presentation ofromances ofchivalry, nomatter howbadly copied or farraginous. The efforts lavished by Villoresi on suchworks, not often contemplated byscholars, become especially fruitful inasmuch as they allowusto better understand certain 'underground' mechanisms atthe dawn oftheGutenburg era,when themanuscript nolonger dominated buttheprinted bookwasstill fairly rudimentary. Analogously, Bottasso provides a telling glimpse ofthestory oflessprestigious incunabula from thepoint ofviewoftheir diffiusion outside Venice, especially in Lyons, AstiandGenoa,inthefields oflaw,medicine andreligious devotion. The useofPiedmontese dialect, for example, indicates notonly thefuture consumers of suchbookproduction, butisalsoevidence that intheearly I490S printing wasstill rather uncommon innorth-eastern Italy. Harris, much like Fahy's acceptance speech, explores the recent history ofEnglish bibliography, butfrom thenarrower pointofviewofeditions ofShakespeare's works. He doesthisin order to invite Italianphilologists to applysomeofthe methodologies usedtherein byEnglish andAmerican researchers, suchasPollard, Bowers andBoorman, inthereconstruction ofthehistory inprinting ofOrlando Furioso. Therefollows anextremely cleardescription ofthemechanical process of printing witha clarification in themanner of Fahyof Englishand Italian terminology, especially skeleton forme (ossatura or,better, gabbia) andrunning title (titolo corrente). Harris's basic suggestion isthat allphilologists andbibliologists should payattention tothe wearandtear ofthe most usedmechanical parts, especially the running titles. Bysodoing, Harris establishes thewayinwhich Ariosto constantly introduced slight changes inhistext right throughout theprinting process, which lasted some eight months. Notonly canweseefrom this that Ariosto wasthe first to edithisowntexts, buttheanalysis aXorded byHarris provides a fine example of howbibliography canactually helpusbetter understand theminds ofthegeniuses ofthe past. Campioni recognizes the fundamental contribution made byFahy tobibliography andphilology, especially inthecataloguing ofbooks. He alsorecognizes that itis theorganizational structures ofItalianlibraries which often prevent thedirect application ofsuch precepts: for example, noneofthe bigger state libraries hasever printed a complete listofthecinqueGentine initspossession. The following paper, given byMaltese, insists onthis very...