The potential and pitfalls of editions in educational contexts

By the example of school reformer and education scholar Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746-1827) along with editions of his writings and correspondence, this article examines the relationship between sources, research traditions, historiography, and the production of editions. What emerges is that those sources that have been turned into editions for use by researchers exercise a significant influence on the issues researchers explore and on historiography, while the kind of historiography dominant at any given moment has always privileged a particular kind of edition. In light of two examples, this paper elaborates on the problems this creates for historiography after the linguistic turn and how these can be minimized – in significant part by tapping the potential of digital editing