The version in which the author first made the work known to the public, that is, the first printing (or possibly the printer’s copy, if it exists), belongs no doubt, to the group of representative versions of the text. This is usually a version of the text whose textual form was authorized for a long period of time in the author’s mind. The first printing is a representative version of the text since it usually is the result of the author’s continuous labor on the work and since the author considered this version of the text worth sharing with a broader public. This version usually contains the least degree of intervention by other people, and as a rule a significant part of the work’s influence originated with it. The most extensive discussion concerning the work was probably sparked by this version of the text, and it probably is the version that was the most widely reviewed. This version is important to the reception history of the work, and therefore it should, as a general principle, be reproduced in an edition.