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Editorial
Dear friends, dear readers,
with a slight delay, for which we apologize, we are putting online issue 8 of “Mediaeval Sophia.”
It opens with the text in Italian, edited by Iole Turco, of the magnificent Lectio Magistralis, given in Castilian and in Latin (in the final part), by Pere Villalba i Varneda entitled De Arte addiscendi, on the occasion of the conferment on him of the Magistral Degree in Philosophy and History of Ideas by the University of Palermo on 20 December 2007.
Soon we plan to publish in our series “Machina Philosophorum” the Lectio in the original Castilian text with the Laudatio and the connected talks, together with the complete and updated bibliography of writings by Villalba, who for over a decade has honoured us at Officina with his friendship and his tireless human and academic skill.
According to the tradition there follow other essays and papers all collected in the section Studia, a big section devoted to the LECTURAE of essays and volumes that are coming to Officina, in bigger and bigger numbers, from small and big Italian and overseas publishing companies that we thank for their precious attention and for their contribution to the enrichment of the library of Officina, which now has over 20,000 volumes (in addition to almost three hundred journals and periodicals), almost all entirely filed and listed in SBN, consultable online.
This is a moment of great financial difficulties that also heavily affect universities and research, and being able to annually increase the patrimony of books and study tools in a very significant way, as happens to Officina, has a value that far exceeds all possible quantification of an exclusively economic nature, though this also has a weight that is not indifferent that fortifies the legal nature of Officina and its institutional functions.
For all this we thank the publishing companies, the authors, the research centres, the foundations, the Italian and overseas university departments that honour us with their attention and their collaboration. The big influx of volumes and the desire to respond in an ever timelier way to scholars’ needs by providing precious and ample information are pushing the editors and all of us towards further strengthening of the collaborations that we find in attentive and hardworking young scholars, to whom our thanks go.
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From this issue, which comes on the occasion of the thirty years since the foundation of Officina (1980-2010), the editing of the journal is taken over by our dear friend and prestigious colleague Armando Bisanti, one of the first friends and members of Officina, while the deputy-editor and editing supervisor is now Giuseppe Allegro, who for years has been a precious and tireless member of the editorial board. In my capacity as “publisher” on behalf of all of us at Officina I thank them for having accepted this task and for their work that, together with the whole editing staff, do a job that every reader will be fully able to understand without me giving any further explanations!
Likewise I thank our very dear and fraternal friend and colleague Diego Ciccarelli, who has edited “Mediaeval Sophia” since its foundation and who, with me as his deputy, leaves the job of editing to make way for a new team that is richer than in vital energies.
To Diego Ciccarelli, who was recently 70 years but still has a very youthful spirit, we dedicate this issue, with the most sincere wishes from all of us on the editing board and at Officina.
The President of Officina
Alessandro Musco