Unveiling The Duke of Parma: Introduction to a special issue

This article introduces a special issue devoted to The Duke of Parma, Fernando Pessoa’s unfinished English-language tragedy, presenting the outcomes of an international and interdisciplinary project and conference held at the University of Parma in 2026. It outlines the project’s scope, focused on the transcription, study, and digital encoding of a complex and largely unexplored corpus from Pessoa’s literary estate, and describes its methodological framework, combining philology, genetic criticism, and digital scholarly editing, with attention to fragmentariness and textual non-linearity. It then situates the contributions included in the issue, spanning editorial theory, TEI modelling, and literary analysis, each paired with critical responses. Together, these studies examine both the material and interpretative dimensions of the drama, presenting it as a case study for rethinking editorial practices and fostering collaborative approaches to complex literary archives.