Return to Philology and Hypertext in and around Petrarch’s Rvf

This article examines the theoretical premises and consequences of the renewed attention to the intersection between philology, hermeneutics, and criticism in humanist studies in general and in Petrarch studies in particular. The most recent philological achievements–from the new facsimile of Rerum vulgarium fragmenta: Codex Vat. Lat. 3195 (Rvf), edited by Belloni, Brugnolo, Storey, and Zamponi to the new critical edition of Petrarch’s masterpiece by Giuseppe Savoca–are presented and discussed as introduction to reflections on the role that a hypertext project, such as the Oregon Petrarch Open Book initiated at the University of Oregon, may play in the return to philology as necessary tool of textual criticism and hermeneutics.