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  • Limina. Intorno al testo (2025-1)

    Limina. Intorno al testo (2025-1)

    This volume is devoted to the tension between computational abstraction and the specificity of humanistic data.

    I. Saggi.
    The issue opens with a broad methodological reflection on the implications of the Digital Humanities. In this vein, Fabio Ciotti examines the epistemological impact of artificial intelligence and immersive technologies, complemented by Cristina Marras’s contribution on the relationship between theoretical frameworks and operational practice. The section continues with analyses focused on the structural and conceptual challenges of encoding textual marginalia in XML/TEI, as highlighted by Roberto Rosselli Del Turco’s incisive observations. These are accompanied by reflections on the effectiveness of digital technologies in supporting research on particularly complex witnesses, exemplified by the case study presented by Ciro Perna and Elisabetta Tonello on the manuscript Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Pal. 313.
    From a different yet complementary perspective, Serena Malatesta introduces Divine Reality within the D.A.N.T.E. project, which explores the potential of immersive technologies—particularly virtual reality—for the didactic and critical enhancement of Dante’s cultural heritage.

    The concept of liminality is further extended to its more contemporary and popular manifestations, focusing on the “extreme” reception of the Dantean tradition and on possibilities of access, reworking, and reuse within digital archives, as illustrated by the Dante Today project presented by Elisabeth Coggeshall and Arielle Saiber. Emphasizing the importance of integrated approaches—especially in complex contexts requiring dialogue among heterogeneous disciplinary competences—the following two contributions, respectively devoted to past work and future perspectives, offer complementary views on the relationship between digital technologies and cultural heritage. Paola Manoni’s essay focuses on the digitization and preservation activities carried out at the Vatican Apostolic Library, while Arianna Traviglia explores future prospects related to the use of new technologies for the protection and enhancement of cultural heritage. Addressing recent innovations in digitization techniques and analytical methodologies, the contributions by Gianluca Del Mastro, Angelo Mario Del Grosso, and Angela Siciliano present the results of their most recent research, in which the digital emerges as a critical and project-oriented practice capable of shaping new forms of access to and interpretation of cultural heritage.

    II. Schede bibliografiche. 
    The issue includes two bio-bibliographical notes conceived in dialogue with one another, which approach from different perspectives the ways in which the Digital Humanities today function as an experimental environment for redefining scholarly practices. In particular, they underscore how making - the very act of doing - progressively acquires an autonomous epistemic value, embedded within an increasingly multidisciplinary and collective dimension, in which technical and conceptual infrastructures themselves become objects of critical reflection.

  • Limina. Intorno al testo (2024-1/2)

    Limina. Intorno al testo (2024-1/2)

    The first issue of this journal is entirely devoted to the PRIN LiMINA project, which investigates the reading practices and circulation of the manuscripts of the antica vulgata of Dante’s Commedia.

    I. Saggi.
    The research developed within this project has contributed to defining the object of study and to expanding its potential hermeneutic and methodological implications. The collected essays allow readers to discern several productive interpretations of the concept of limina—extended to exegetical apparatuses in the essays by Luca Azzetta and Giuseppe Alvino, and to the figurative tradition, as demonstrated by Federica Maria Giallombardo. They also present significant findings on modes of manuscript production (through the case discussed by Valeria De Fraja) and on commentary traditions (with Raffaele Caliendo addressing the emblematic Chiose Cassinesi and Francesco Donato focusing on the Chiose Cagliaritane).

    II. Notizie dai manoscritti e dalle stampe (Notes from Manuscripts and Early Prints).
    The notes on the liminary apparatuses of individual codices (examined for Ars. 8530 by Serena Malatesta and for Fior. II I 39 by Raffaele Vitolo) or of small, homogeneous groups (as in the case of the manuscripts from Pal’s workshop discussed by Beatrice Mosca) provide opportunities to reflect on the phenomenological diversity of limina and on the multiple functions they fulfill in the study of cultural history.

    III. Schede bibliografiche.
    The bibliographical notes present two books that address, from different perspectives, the theme of the philology of images, in dialogue with the topics explored in this issue. Their form is deliberately neither that of a simple notice nor that of a conventional review.

    We hope that the information and reflections offered on the themes selected from issue to issue will help keep the community of readers informed and actively engaged in scholarly debate.