Methods of quality, quality of methods. What does have Roberto Busa to communicate to Digital Humanists in the 21st century? From hermeneutics to performativity.

Despite being also known as the “Father of Digital Humanities” owing to his pioneering contribution to the application of informatics to the whole ensemble of texts by the medieval philosopher and theologian Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), the Jesuit Italian priest Roberto Busa (1913-2011) has still not been fully appreciated with regard to his development of a “hermeneutic informatics” [Busa 1999, 5]. Indeed this may represent a key concept to clarify what makes a difference between the common usage of computers in order to speed up procedures, and high-quality practices enhancing the role of informatics in shaping human interaction with machines. In other terms, Busa’s interpretation of informatics may impact not only on the way in which digital resources and tools are developed, but also on the epistemological reflection about Digital Humanities. In this paper, by drawing from many of his texts, I will outline how this innovative “hermeneutics” is explained by Busa in terms of language dynamisms potentially leading to the development of what Johanna Drucker has described as a “humanistic-informed theory of the making of technology” [Drucker 2012, 87].