Tracing a fine line between philology and literature, this text presents the methodological writings and the reading exercises that Ezio Raimondi has developed over the last fifteen years, a body of work the foundations of which testify to an extraordinarily lively and ample research activity. Philology, hermeneutics, intertextuality, and criticism are terms that in this book assume interdependent and cooperative traits, at the levels of both theoretical research and concrete textual analysis. This outlook also distinguishes the moving commemoration of great critics such as Vittore Branca and Natalino Sapegno. Literature is seen as an endless dialogue that can be explored in the deep echoes of its historical, morphological, and interpretative features, from Tasso to Manzoni, from DAnnunzio to Svevo.

Ezio Raimondi is professor emeritus of Italian Literature at the University of Bologna.