Verso un'edizione critica digitale dell'<i>Achilleide</i> di Stazio

In this paper we would like to share some thoughts with regard to the preparation of our digital critical edition of Statius’ Achilleid. Digital methods open up new research perspectives and change the paradigm for the critical editor of classical texts, both at the level of editing and publishing. The editor now has the opportunity to make available and share every stage of her/his work (in particular, images of all the manuscripts, the process of collation, analysis of the manuscript tradition, editorial choices) and so allow the community of researchers in Classics to validate every stage in the creation of a new edition and encourage broad collaboration. Conceived in the framework of two consecutive projects funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation, the ‘Digital Statius: the Achilleid’ website (https://achilleid.unige.ch/) allows users to move from any given verse in the text to images of 217 among the 224 surviving manuscripts in which the text is transmitted. With the text of the poem at its center, this platform marks the first step in the construction of a digital environment for the study of the Achilleid. Intended to contain enrichments of various kinds (for example codicological descriptions, an interactive map of the circulation of the manuscripts, translations and commentaries), the website is addressed to both professional scholars interested in the business of editing texts and to students at different levels. After a brief status quaestionis concerning the way the Achilleid has been edited so far, the article presents the goals of our project and the current functionalities of the website, provides details of the methods implemented and outlines long-term developments. Particular emphasis is placed on the specific nature of a critical edition that not only aims to ensure data interoperability, but also provides innovative access to manuscripts by linking image and text at the level of the individual verse