With the beginning of this number 1 of Cromohs it starts a new experience in the field of periodicals on history of culture, the outcome of a project conceived and worked out since June 1995, the original purposes of which you can read in another page of this review. During this period the reasons which led us to elaborate such a project have grown stronger and stronger, together with a technological development that makes more and more pressing to fit methodologies and techniques of research and communication in the field of humanities. If we think of the real necessities of the research organization and communication, there would be no real need of a new traditional historical review: the present publishing situation is already particularly rich, to some extent overcrowded and there are serious problems for the constant bibliographical checking of the scientific output in every field. There would be no need chiefly if we refer to what the specific nature of a review generally means: a bound volume, born to be physically placed on the shelves of a public or private library, at variable but often high prime and selling price; besides printing requires a relatively long period and problems of management and distribution at times very hard to overcome.
Compared to this reality -peculiar of a cultural context where bibliographic consultation is a tiring work because of structures not fully suitable to the needs of research and study- the means given by the recent telematic nets development constitute an occasion we can't miss. An electronic review available by the Internet offers means enormously superior to whatever printed periodical, besides its resources are much more suitable to the real progress of research compared to the traditional expenses imposed by paper production. But it is also certain that a right use of the new communication methodologies imposes to "think of" a review -and a book- with new and different forms in comparison with the reality where we have intellectually grown up and that still forms the common background of research and study work; a request that is not satisfied at the same moment when it was born, because it needs a steady experimentation and check.
People who are responsible for this undertaking are very conscious of the needs and difficulties they are dealing with; they have had to try to get a technical competence certainly atypical in the field of humanities, but with the firm belief that in this way, notwithstanding the relevant difficulties, it is possible lay down the foundations of a new method from the point of view of research as well as from that of historical disciplines' didactics. A first typical example of the necessity of thinking of a review in a new way is occurred in relation to its periodicity. The notions of "issue" and "volume" directly refer to a tactile, closed (and bound) object, the nature of which is in sharp contrast with the Internet. So it has been unavoidable to devise and project a new and different form of periodical publication, that, even if it presents its own fixed time, it would not kill the potentialities -above all in relation to constant revision- which belong to the net. Therefore, each issue will be not tied up to the old typographical times, requested by a paper product, but to the natural course of the year, it will be growing with time till it will be "closed" only at the end of the solar year, on 31th of December; at that time the issue of the review will be no more available to be increased or to be changed, it will be stored in the Archive appended to Cromohs but always avilable to consult. This is, as we think, a new idea of periodicity we point out to those who are working or devising a similar purpose, in order to open a debate and to exchange experiences.
We deem important to call attention of scholars and potential future contributors to the fact that, even if it takes a new form, a new physical medium, new periodicity and distribution, Cromohs still presents at the same time some elements of the traditional publications. From the bibliographic point of view, it has an ISSN code, while from the juridical one its existence and the published contributions are protected in every respect by the legal registration of the review, so that every unauthorised use of its materials is to be considered unlawful in the same way of whatsoever publication protected by regular copyright. Finally, as regards to the strictly technical side, the intangibility of the materials -essays, reviews, bibliographies, the texts of the Library- is personally granted by the two editors, the only ones who know the access codes to modify them.
As we have already underlined in the original explanation of the project and in the Introduction to the Library, the editors give considerable importance to the development of Cromohs' electronic Library, which is considered an important way to achieve a new relationship with historiographic sources and their fruition, above all as far as university research and didactics are concerned. The Library is really improving itself following the lines of editorial development that the real putting forward will make clearer and more defined: the first texts appearing there have also the aim to constitute an example and a "prototype" of a collection which we hope could sensibly grow. We believe that this aspect of our work may have a great importance for all those who work in the field of historical research and university historical teaching; we are persuaded that all those who enjoy this telematic review will not fail to reward our efforts in this direction.
A wholly new experiment will be finally the telematic seminars, we hope to start as soon as possible. It is another particularly important example of the great contribution the telematic resources can offer to satisfy the needs of communication and scientific debate: the virtual table of a telematic seminar will make possible to overcome difficulties and costs otherwise connected to the physical presence of those scholars we deem important in order to analyse a fixed issue, without considering how far away they come from.
While we are closing with this Introduction, we now wish to underline that the future development of the review still lies just on voluntary efforts. Cromohs has been entirely accomplished by the editors and a group of young people - undergraduates, young researchers working for doctorate and doctors - who have contributed in an essential way to put in reality the bibliographic section (a section we think particularly useful), up to now without any aid. It is certainly reason of legitimate pride, but it cannot prevent us from wishing adequate attention towards this particular work or something similar from all organization or people selecting and supporting innovative projects and research in methodology and scientific communication. It would allow the realization of many ideas that were born around this project and, we really believe, would be able to improve humanities research and didactics.
April 1996