A question that I hope someone can help with.
For the German and Italian translations of Foucault’s History of Sexuality Volume I, Foucault wrote a new preface. This appears in Dits et écrits as text number 190, but as a retranslation into French from the German preface.
According to Dits et écrits the German edition Sexualität und Wahrheit: Der Wille zum Wissen appeared in 1977, though I’ve seen other dates; and the Italian La volontà di sapere looks like a 1978 publication; though again other dates appear as well. I’m trying to find out for sure when the text was written. I’ve seen a translation of the Italian into English, which has it signed by Foucault with a September 1977 date. Can anyone with access to the Italian confirm this is what that says there? And is the German version dated?
Update: Michael Eldred (in comments below) confirms that the German edition was first published in 1977, and that the preface there is undated. It appears that the text was then translated for the Italian edition the following year, and perhaps the date was added at that point – presumably to distinguish a 1977 preface from a 1976 text in a 1978 translation. It would be good to know if the Italian edition does indeed have the date printed.
