With reference to the relationship between text and author, a subject as challenging as it is problematic in textual criticism terms, the members of the Munich postgraduate research group on »Textual Criticism as Foundation and Method in Historical Studies« here present the findings of their Venice symposium and in so doing give impressive evidence of their competence on the practical and theoretical plane. The range of subjects addressed stretches from inscriptions from the ancient world and medieval authorial awareness to musical works of the Renaissance and from there to texts culled from present-day literary works. In terms of editorial history, the spectrum extends from the beginnings of textual criticism in the writings of J.J. Bodmer and J. Grimm to the textual genesis approach in editorial practice of the modern age.