As the manuscript writing space fades away replaced by electronic processes, we face the inevitable disappearance of variants (along with that of traditional philological methodologies and concepts). Everyday fewer writers save the different versions of their texts, and the new writing technology implies a loss for the knowledge of the «genèse du texte». DV wishes to provide a useful tool for the understanding of the literary writing process through the digitalization of writers' drafts, pre-texts, and brouillons d'écriture in both text and image formats.

We are also asking writers for electronic copies of their works, but since all these texts are under copyright, only short --though strategic-- portions of text will be on-line. Our idea is eventually to allow readers "to navigate" into the author's variants through a multiple-frames system. At present there are on-line 7 versions of Sanvitale's short story Orient-Express, and it is possible to download the critical "printed" edition of this piece and read it with MS Winword 2 or 6. However, in the future the three versions will be readable on screen, thanks to a system of frames/columns with intertextual and intra-textual links between the different passages.

Editorial board

The staff of the DV project is grateful to scholars and teachers from different institutions and countries that have agreed to supervise the project. The editorial board of Digital Variants is formed by:

• Fabio Ciotti, CRILet, Università "La Sapienza", Rome.



• Francisco Marcos Marín, Departamento de Lingüística General, Universidad Autónoma, Madrid.



• José Antonio Millán.



• Xavier Renedo Puig, Departament de Filologia i Filosofia, Universitat de Girona.



• Massimo Riva, Department of Italian Studies, Brown University.



• Jonathan Usher, Department of Italian, University of Edinburgh.

Staff

Luana Babini (University of Edinburgh), Luisa Carrer (University of Edinburgh), Ángel García Galiano (Departamento de Filología Española I, Universidad Complutense, Madrid), Barbara Lotti (University of Bologna), Cinzia Pusceddu (University of Edinburgh), Luisa Selvaggini (Università della Tuscia), and Francesca Romiti.