ABSTRACT
Asked, a few years before his death, what he thought of the idea of publishing an edition of his collected works, Marx is supposed to have replied that they had yet to be written (Kautsky 1955: 32). Posterity has rendered a different verdict. The MEGA2 collected edition of Marx’s writings and Nachlass will eventually comprise, counting the writings of Engels included in it, 114 volumes. The fact that the Grundrisse, as the earliest draft of Marx’s magnum opus, stands at the head of the section of MEGA2 given over to Capital and the preliminary studies for it reflects its significance in the overall development of his work.
