Nel laboratorio creativo di Ariosto: dall’inchiostro all’edizione genetica digitale dei frammenti autografi dell’Orlando Furioso come Virtual Research Environment

This research is situated at the intersection of authorial philology and digital humanities, and presents the development of a digital critical-genetic prototype edition of the autograph fragments of Ludovico Ariosto’s Orlando furioso. Its aim is to combine the methodological rigor of traditional philology with the potential of digital technologies, in order to reconstruct not only the final form of the poem, but also the material and textual traces of its creative process. From the reconstruction of the editorial history and the autograph tradition of the Furioso – beginning with the pioneering work of Santorre Debenedetti and extending to the interpretations of Gianfranco Contini and Cesare Segre – the project leads to the definition of an integrated methodological model that brings together the genetic perspective of authorial philology and the principles of open science. Within this framework, digitization, XML-TEI encoding, and the adoption of international standards (TEI P5, IIIF, METS, FITS) ensure the interoperability, traceability, and sustainability of digital data, in accordance with the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable). A key innovative aspect lies in the application of artificial intelligence techniques to the analysis of Ariosto’s manuscripts through the Transkribus platform. Experiments in Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR) and layout analysis have achieved high levels of accuracy, demonstrating the potential for integrating machine learning models into philological workflows without compromising the interpretative control of the scholar. The XML-TEI encoding model designed for the digital genetic edition will be published through the Edition Visualization Technology (EVT) platform, which enables a hypertextual representation of the fragments’ stratigraphic complexity and facilitates navigation across the various phases of the creative process. The project thus takes the form of a dynamic and collaborative research infrastructure, open to future developments and implementations. In conclusion, this study demonstrates that digital philology constitutes not merely an area of technological application but a genuine epistemological paradigm, capable of renewing the modes of analysis, representation, and transmission of literary texts, while restoring Ariosto’s voice within the living and processual dimension of his writing.