Le antologie di "Pantheon": lavorare sui classici tra canone e mercato

The essay reconstructs the history, the architecture, and the characteristics of Bompiani’s “Pantheon” series, a crucial collection of anthologies published for two decades, starting from the early 1940s. By focusing on the work of the pub- lisher Valentino Bompiani and his collaborator Elio Vittorini, this essay identifies the national and international models that inspired the series, suggests its ideal position in the market, and reflects on the essential function of the iconographic material in “Pantheon”, as a connecting element between literary and visual cul- ture. Despite the “neutral” status originally attributed to the project, the history of the series reflects its context, thus confirming how working on the classics and the canon is never culturally or politically neutral.