Editing as an academic mode of work has had a variable ‘press’ - it is often seen as just plumbing. But without editions no historian of whatever critical persuasion could operate. Texts that are not edited are effectively invisible.
The advent of electronic means of text production has also raised new possibilities and new problems that need to be openly considered rather than ignored. The papers in this volume reflect those concerns, and explore the ways forward. How do the best editorial procedures of the past get transmitted to the future? A distinguished line-up of experienced editors and younger scholars actively grappling with these issues reflect on their engagement with the challenges of textual theory and editorial practice.
No single solution emerges as applicable to all texts and for all editions; the individual characteristics of each text and its transmission, together with the intended audience of each edition, emerge as primary areas for consideration.