Editorial (n.s. – 2016)
(read / download in PDF)
Just as with a launch ex nihilo, so the inauguration of a new series of a review, especially one involving a new design and structure, requires some sort of introduction, in which to flesh out the reasons for the change and the direction taken. And this sense of obligation is felt with all the more urgency given that the new series comprises a significant change in periodicity and a complete redefinition of editorial activity and partnerships.
In this new manifestation, the second series – though perhaps the word «second» may not imply the same permanence that we hope this series will achieve –, «Albertiana» has new “structural” characteristics. It is our intention to avoid the siren calls of fashion, or of dumbing down or of offering vain simplifications in the name of vulgarisation, all of which carry research away from philosophical and historical complexities studied by our experienced readers.
In other words, after almost twenty years since its founding, the review will have a new editorial facies, be published twice a year, and at the same time spread its thematic net wider. The Société internationale Leon Battista Alberti, the review’s designer and creator, is simultaneously discontinuing its editorial collaboration with Casa editrice Leo S. Olschki, given the impossibility of carrying on in view of the changed cultural, political and economic climate, and making a new start, this time with Fabrizio Serra editore, an indisputably successful specialist publisher and distributor of academic reviews and periodicals, and a publishing house with which the Société internationale Leon Battista Alberti has already cooperated to mutual advantage.
The new outer cover aims for sobriety and classical elegance, and this goes hand in hand with the new series’ policy (already begun) of giving greater space and importance to illustrations of all sorts. «Albertiana» has also redesigned the pages themselves, not only introducing the font, DANTE, designed sixty years ago by Giovanni Mardersteig in a deliberate attempt to reproduce the characters cut by Francesco Griffo for Aldus Manutius, but also by increasing the capacity of the pages (ca. 3,800 to 4,600 characters per page, as opposed to ca. 2,900-3,400 of the earlier series, thereby gaining ca. 31% to 35%, depending on the sections) and the number of pages themselves. So with more room, the new version will make it possible to publish, in the second issue in the year, a monograph or different ad hoc essays or even an edition with commentary or translation, as is the case here with Momus, the undisputed masterpiece of all Alberti’s lusi, which has both the first ever commentary and the first authentic critical edition of the text, thereby setting the bar for future publications, should time and opportunity allow.
In this way diversifying and enriching the offer and the structure, the review hopes that, despite the difficult and uncertain climate for European letters at the moment, it can consolidate its readership, already significant in numbers, whether private individuals or institutional subscriptions.
Exacting but tolerant, the Albertian Lares et Penates could not formulate any logical argument for exclusion or (even worse) ideological occupation: the periodical aims (and has for many indisputable reasons succeeded in doing so for the last twenty years) at freedom of theme and method, is not strictly reserved to the works of Alberti and his more or less direct influence on subsequent work, and is not excluded to those who humanistically use history and knowledge of Antiquity as the foundation for reflections on, or questions about, the present.
***
Editorial (1998)
The publication of a new periodical is traditionally the opportunity for a short presentation or explanation of the principal subjects, methods and aims implied (often enigmatically) in the title. A few words will suffice to introduce «Albertiana».
With reference to the title first, it will — we believe — come as no surprise that a periodical, with such an explicit titular reference to the personality and multi-faceted work of one of the greatest and original minds of the European Renaissance, centres on Leon
Battista Alberti. And given such a title, it will be unexceptional to find, on the one hand, recognition of Alberti as a central figure and as unparalleled in the intellectual and artistic output of the 15th century and, on the other, a conscious attempt to create the first tool for the promotion and publication of research, edited texts, and studies and discussions of the specific themes, fields, and figures directly linked to the great humanist and architect.
As regards the subjects, methods and aims, «Albertiana» intends to be a scholarly tool providing a non-partisan, multi-disciplinary forum promoting dialogue between different national traditions and cultures, between different yet complementary disciplines. Only having achieved this will it be possible to get close to a complete understanding of humanist culture and its homogenous but non-uniform expressions. Thus, as well as a tool, «Albertiana» aims at being a meeting place for free, uncensored dialogue, of which the only selection criteria will be the worth of the individual contributions as established by a Committee of Readers whose only brief is to have as open a mind as possible.
Exacting but tolerant, the Albertian Lares et Penates could not formulate any logical argument for exclusion or (even worse) squatting: the periodical aims at freedom of theme and method, is not strictly reserved to the works of Alberti and his more or less direct influence on subsequent work, and is not excluded to those who humanistically use history and knowledge of antiquity as the foundation for reflections on, or questions about, the present.