Introduction: Reading the OPOB

The philology and reception of Petrarch's Rerum vulgarium fragmenta is almost seven centuries old. However, as all the masterpieces of world literature, "it cannot be inherited" but every new generation must obtain it "by great labour" (Eliot).  The OPOB values philology's three fundamental elements: restitutio, traditio, interpretatio. Digital technology and hypertext approach create the condition necessary to appreciate the importance of each configuration of the Rvf in relation to the others conceived by Petrarch and/or the Petrarchan tradition. To keep the interest in philology alive we must refuse the ideology of the absolute, definite text, while remaining aware of the alterity of the past and appreciative of the conflict of interpretations. The OPOB invites the reader to question the assumption that critical editing is opposed to and incommensurable with diplomatic editing, and to take advantage of the Comparing assets and poems tool as editorial machine capable of generating on demand multiple textual formations.

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