Editor-in-Chief: Giuseppe Gilberto Biondi

Deputy Editor-in-Chief: Giuseppina Allegri

Founded in January 1946 by Vittore Pisani and Giuseppe Scarpat, a student of his, the magazine “Paideia” began its activity in the difficult post-war years with the subtitle of “literary magazine of bibliographic information”. Its editorial staff is made up of some eminent scholars in classical, medieval and modern disciplines (Mario Apollonio, Carlo Cordié, Eugenio Dupré Theseider, Alessandro Passerini, Mario Untersteiner and Giuseppe Ridossi); renowned experts or young people who would soon become such.

At its start, the magazine collected articles, communications, essays of various lengths and offered a wealth of bibliographical information through reviews and study overviews. Addressed not only to specialists but also to all those who “have made the humanae litterae their occupation and spiritual nourishment every day” (Pisani, in the presentation of the first issue), “Paideia” aims to be a place of debate and synthesis of the critical issues relating to historical, philological and literary disciplines with the more ambitious objective of contributing to the «elevation of the tone, of the intimate content of culture» (Pisani, ibid.), all the more pressing after the tragedy of the world conflict.

By effectively implementing the initial intentions and maintaining the wide range of contents and issues, the magazine focuses on classical philology, which became by far its dominant subject in the last decades of the 20th century. After the first editors passed away, the magazine survived for many years thanks to the competent commitment of professor Giuseppe Scarpat alone and still appears fully vital on the threshold of 2000.

Professor Scarpat has been joined in recent years by his colleague from the University of Parma Giuseppe Gilberto Biondi (first Director of the Department of Classical and Medieval Philology, then Dean of the Faculty of Letters), who in 2004 became Chief Editor of the magazine with a new editorial team (Gabriele Burzacchini, Stefano Caroti, Giampaolo Ropa, William Spaggiari).

In 2019, again under the direction of Giuseppe Gilberto Biondi, the magazine renews its organization with an Editorial Committee and an Editorial Committee and a Scientific Committee which includes authoritative Italian and foreign scholars.

The magazine implements the quality criteria indicated by ANVUR and is classified among the A level scientific magazines. Co-publishers, whose logos appear on the title page of “Paideia”, are the Biblioteca Malatestiana of Cesena and the Accademia Virgiliana of Mantua.

There are different sections into which the volumes are divided: a first monographic part is matched by “Articles and notes”, “Catulliana” in which the proceedings of the Catullian conferences organized by the “Centro Studi Catulliani” of the University of Parma are also placed, “Cards”, “Books received”.

The monographic section was dedicated to wide-ranging themes with multi-year development: from the initiative that launched the new course by hosting the most authoritative masters, Italian and foreign, of the disciplines with which the magazine has historically dealt (2004.2005), to “Hymnology” (2009. 2010. 2011), to “Augustana” (2012. 2013. 2014), “Ovidiana” (2015. 2016. 2017), “Catulliana. Catullus: models, manuscript tradition, Fortleben” (2018. 2019). In 2020 the year was dedicated to “Giuseppe Scarpat on the centenary of his birth” with contributions that touch on the themes that most characterized his scientific careers (Homer, Seneca, testamentary exegesis and Christianity); in 2021 under the theme “Recentiores non deteriores”.

In the last two years the project “Satura: towards and beyond a (not only) literary genre” has been launched, seeking to fine-tune the complex genetics of SATURA/SATIRE not only from the point of view of its heterogenesis (comedy, Menippean satire, paro-epic, satyr drama, iambic-trochaic lyric, etc.) but also of his literary epigones, ancient and modern. The topic has received many contributions which will occupy the magazine in the coming years.

Since 2004 the magazine has been joined by the “Quaderni di Paideia” series, which up to now has 25 titles (plus one outside the series).