Unpublished letters by Ravaisson-Mollien to Favaro. Archival indiscretions

Abstract

The discovery of two unpublished letters by Ravaisson-Mollien in a Miscellanea Vinciana by Antonio Favaro, now in the Biblioteca Pedretti, it’s the starting point for research on the first complete edition of Leonardo’s manuscripts by the Institut de France. At the same time Jean Paul Richter published the first edition of his compendium with Leonardo’s texts organized on a thematic basis. These books were published at an important historical moment in which the scholarship wondered about the best method for publishing Leonardo’s texts. Born now a real methodological diatribe which led to the definition of a method of publishing, which has been consolidated, in favor of anastatic editions with diplomatic transcriptions of Leonardo’s texts.