Suggestions for reading this volume

We can classify most of the items collected in this volume under these last three categories: letters and circulars, rules and regulations, various (for the Oratory, the houses, the Sodalities, the Salesian Society, the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians); stories of the Oratory penned at different times; pamphlets and circulars to Cooperators and benefactors, to political and religious authorities; articles in the Salesian Bulletin; programmes for feasts and the boarding schools; memorials in defence of the Salesian schools or to obtain benefits or to give explanations on the progress of the Congregation or missions in Patagonia; accurate summaries of his preventive system; notes of all kinds, in particular on pedagogical and spiritual matters; general notices and guidelines of an educational and formative kind for the boys or the Salesians; written versions of sermons, goodnights, conferences and "dreams"; edifying biographies of people close to Don Bosco, etc.

In the face of such a large number and variety of writings, it is clear, for a correct reading and for a valid interpretation, that we should take into account firstly the literary genre of the individual documents: chronicle, narrative, biographical, autobiographical, legal, apologetic, hagiographic , dramatic, edifying, homiletic, confidential, moralistic, didactic, academic, compilations, allegory...

Secondly, we should carefully consider the author's intention: for private use or for printing, intended for a single person or many recipients, addressed to an authority or a simple person (man, woman, youth, cleric, brother, priest, sister, Salesian), for educational purposes or in defence of their actions, to inform or to form, brought about by a particular situation or impromptu, etc.

Nor should other factors be overlooked: the existence or otherwise of earlier editing efforts (a text written as an instant response has a different value from one which has been reworked many times; a completely personal text differing from one incorporating citations from others …); the way Don Bosco presents it; the occasion and conditions under which he writes a given document (in real time or later, as a young priest full of dreams, or as an elderly founder at a time he is weighing things up, at times of foundational success or of institutional crisis, at the height of his strength or at times of illness and tiredness).

A fundamental characteristic of the writings of Don Bosco should also be borne in mind—his care to express himself with the utmost simplicity, unpretentiously, neither speculative nor literary, but in a way that even the uneducated person can understand without help from others. His then is a simple, clear, orderly, familiar, often fatherly style of writing, aimed at making sure he is understood, adapted to everyone's intelligence, and especially able to speak to everyone's heart. When he took up the pen Don Bosco did not do it to write treatises, but to “speak” to the young, to ordinary people.

Finally, as is well known, in the writings and speeches aimed at the formation of the Salesians we do not go looking for complex pages of spiritual or educational doctrine, nor profound analysis of a sociological nature or of psychological introspection. Don Bosco preferred offering reflections that came from his personal experience, codifying a practical educational system he had experienced. Especially because certain of his beliefs or prior understandings play a precise role, like his adhesion to the principles of faith and an unquestionable tradition of Christian life and practice, the intangibility of religion and the papacy, the incompatibility of Christian righteousness with any kind of rebellion against legitimate authority, the 'morality' which any kind of writing should be imbued with, the continuity of an educational praxis that had been so effective. If the religious motive is very pronounced, perhaps because of the particular trends of the time and the formation of Don Bosco, also a pedagogical one seems to be affected by the particular historical, geographical and socio-psychological environment at the Valdocco Oratory, and in this, especially the climate and the needs of the student section.

As a final summary, it is the historical sense which must guide the reader of Don Bosco's writings.

This current volume can be read page by page without leaving out the general introduction that offers essential frameworks and keys to the reading. It could also be read thematically, following up specific topics. But it is important to ask oneself, before thumbing through the volume, what we expect of it. At this point it would be useful to look through the thematic index at the end for what interests one. The reason is simple: often a topic is found not only in the part which seems to relate most to it—and where, for practical reasons, it has been included—but also in other parts of the volume. It is well-known that for Don Bosco, pedagogy and spirituality have significant contact points, so often "pedagogical sources" may also without exaggeration be considered as "spiritual sources" and vice versa. Not only that, also for an understanding of pedagogy and spirituality, knowledge of his experience of life and action—"narrated" in different ways in writings with different purposes—is an essential condition for avoiding one-sided interpretations and abstract evaluations. In this regard the general and thematic indexes are of particular interest.

Of course, the reader will not be the first to read the writings of Don Bosco published here: others have read them, contextualised, analysed, interpreted them before him. So wisdom suggests that the bibliography at the end of each chapter and the bibliography at the end of the volume, as well as critical editions of individual texts, be part of a "small library" available to everyone in case of need.

In the collection and selection of the materials offered, critical editions of existing documents and writings of Don Bosco, unpublished signed manuscripts and original printed texts reproduced in facsimile edition have been preferred (Giovanni Bosco, Opere edite. Prima serie: Libri e opuscoli. Rome, LAS 1976-1977, 37 vols. 1976-1977). For texts drawn from conferences, letters or circulars, accounts of “goodnights” or “dreams”, we have used manuscripts signed by Don Bosco or notes and testimonies of his listeners preserved in the ASC. In this case the location in the archives and references to the Biographical Memoirs (BM) have been given.

For the transcription of documents, keeping in mind that the purpose of the publication is to widen the range of readers, we have sought to offer an edition that is as faithful as possible to the original, while being rigorous and legible, but without the complex apparatus common to critical editions. The limited intervention on the part of the editors of the different parts of the volume satisfy the following criteria:
[Note that these may or may not apply in this English translation—they may apply where certain parts or words are left in Italian for obvious reasons, otherwise, as befits translation, English conventions will apply rather than Italian ones.]
a) abbreviations of words or phrases (e.g.: Aus.: Ausiliatrice; G.C.: Gesù Cristo; Elem.: elementare), with exception of commonly used abbreviations which can be easily understood (e.g.: art.).

b) removal of archaic forms that might make the reading and understanding of the text difficult (e.g..: a’: ai; co’: coi; da’: dai; de’: dei; ne’: nei; pe’: pei; pel: per il, etc.).

c) Original punctuation has been kept. To facilitate reading however some minor changes have been introduced but they do not alter the meaning of a sentence or term. at the end of numbered paragraphs, the semicolon (;) sometimes used in the original, though not always consistently, becomes a period (.) In limited cases it was thought necessary to introduce punctuation to avoid difficult or ambiguous reading.

d) s have been normalised according to current usage (perchè is always: perché; poichè: poiché; quì: qui; nè: né).

e) Words with final double letters are written as they would be today.

f) Final syllable of abbreviations, often written as superscript, is written at the same level.

g) Overuse of capital letters is normalised for today:

1) Initial capital: proper nouns, certain collective nouns (Chiesa cattolica, Società salesiana, Ministero della Pubblica Istruzione), Oratorio (when it refers to the Oratory of St Francis de Sales in Turin), Papa and Re (Sua Santità, Sacra Real Maestà…).

2) Initial lowercase: common nouns (casa, scuola, madre); months of year and days of week (if in Italian); abbreviation for professions: sac. (sacerdote), avv. (avvocato), on. (onorevole), can. (canonico); noble or ecclesiastical titles (conte, marchesa, cardinale, vescovo, prevosto, provveditore, direttore, sindaco, ispettore).

ABBREVIATIONS
AGFMA = General Archives of the FMA

allogr. = allografo, written by another hand

ASC = Archivio Salesiano Centrale or Central Salesian Archives

aut = autografo – original handwritten document

BS = “Bollettino Salesiano” (Turin 1877-)

CG = Capitolo Generale or GC, General Chapter

DBS = Dizionario biografico dei salesiani. Redazione: E. Valentini, A. Rodinò, by Salesian Press Office Turin 1969

DBE, Scritti = P. Braido (ed.), Don Bosco educatore. Scritti e testimonianze. Roma, LAS 1997²

E = Epistolario di S. Giovanni Bosco. Per cura di E. Ceria. Torino, SEI 1858-1959

Ed. = Edizione, edito

E(m) = G. Bosco, Epistolario. Introduzione, testi critiche e note a cura di F. Motto. 5 vol. Roma, LAS 1991-2012

MB (also BM if English versions are [rarely] cited.) G. B. Lemoyne, Memorie biografiche di don Giovanni Bosco… del venerabile servo di Dio don Giovanni Bosco…, vol. 1-9. S. Benigno Canavese. Torino, Scuola Tipografica Salesiana-Libreria Editrice 1898-1917; G. Lemoyne - A. Amadei, Memorie biografiche di san Giovanni Bosco, vol. 10. Torino, SEI 1939; E. Ceria, Memorie biografiche del beato Giovanni Bosco…, vol. 11-15. Torino, SEI 1930-1934; E. Ceria, Memorie biografiche di san Giovanni Bosco, vol. 16-19. Torino, SEI 1935-1939.

Ms = manoscritto or manuscript

OE = G. Bosco, Opere edite. Prima serie: Libri e opuscoli. Roma, LAS 1976-1977