Per una edizione critica del "Pluto" di Aristofane

In this paper I try to give a general idea of the most important issues that any new editor of Aristophanes’ Plutus must tackle. To be sure, I do not propose to present a history of the text, but a collection of data organized by key points: the double staging of Plutus (on a second drama with the same title we have information from many ancient sources), the evidence offered by ancient papyri (papyri share some readings with later witnesses, showing that the division into families begins already in late antiquity), the medieval transmission. The most extended section of the paper is devoted to the examination of a selection of 13 medieval manuscripts that represent the subsequent stages in the critical approach to the text (middle Byzantine manuscripts, late Byzantine manuscripts, Thoman manuscripts, Triclinian manuscripts, manuscripts reflecting the so called “mixed recension”). The final section discusses some passages of the play that can suggest very interesting clues for the ecdotic strategy.