Introduzione

This issue of the journal presents a selection of the papers given at the AIUCD2017 Conference (12-18 January 2017, Sapienza University of Roma), whose theme was The Reverse Telescope: Big Data and Distant Reading in the Humanities. The numerous and high-quality talks presented at the conference have given an important contribution to the reflection on the epistemological and methodological impact of those methodologies in the various fields of the Humanities. The selection of articles derived from the conference papers here published is enriched by an important theoretical article by Mike Kestemont and Luc Herman entitled Can Machines read Literature? This selection testify the overall thematic variety and depth of elaboration that characterizes the scientific community gathered around AIUCD.