This article discusses some problems involved in the relationship between textual criticism and philosophical interpretation, evoking observations by Eugenio Garin, Giorgio Pasquali, Martin Heidegger and Hans-Georg Gadamer. Such an investigation aims at challenging a persistent, common bias: that the clarification of readings and borrowings identifiable in a book represents a preliminary field of research, useful to prepare the note apparatus and obtain a critical edition, but condemned to remain separate from the general interpretation of the text. © 2017 Casa Editrice le Lettere. All rights reserved.