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The transmission of texts constitutes the memory of mankind; this is a much repeated truth. As textual editors we participate in an ancient tradition of passing on knowledge, which has developed more and more finetuned instruments for the representation of texts. The critical edition, as we know it today, is a product of Historicism and has historical consciousness as its prerequisite. An edition is motivated because a rift in the understanding has occurred, and it is this rift that the editor is called upon both to point out and to bridge (cf. Senger 1987, 1 and ff.)
The concept of classics is a contested one. Well known is Gadamer's claim half a century ago, that classics are actually classics only insofar as they have the power to transmit themselves. "The 'classical' is something raised above the vicissitudes of changing times and changing tastes", he states; it is "immediately accessible", "a consciousness of something enduring, of significance that cannot be lost and that is independent of all the circumstances of time" (Gadamer 1995, 288). He continues: '[T] he classical preserves itself precisely because it is significant in itself and interprets itself". And: "What we call 'classical' does not first require the overcoming of historical distance, for in its own constant mediation it overcomes this distance by itself" (Gadamer 1995, 289-90).
This passionate confidence in the classics now seems untimely, almost embarrassing. Today, no one recoils from the fact that even the classics - in the highest degree the classics - are dependent upon our active assistance in their transmission. A work never possesses the status of "classic" once and for all; this must constantly be obtained anew. Among Gadamer's most fervent adversaries on this point was Hans Robert Jau?, who emphasised that the historical function of a work of art is to be found in its reception. In order to fully understand the decisive importance of the history of reception for how a work is transmitted to us as a "classic", Gadamer must, according to Jau?, abandon his obsolete notion of "classics". We must, Jau? claims, reconstruct the value-systems of ancient epochs; we must trace the manifold historical emanations of the literary works, so that we may discover to what degree understanding is truly productive. The...