Abstract: This study deals with the issue of so-called critical editions of older literature, which are characterized by a rigorous reconstruction of the original text with notes, commentaries and afterwords. They appeared in European countries around the beginning of the 19th century, in the Slovak cultural space first in the publication of original literature. In translation and publishing practice, critical editions began to be systematically published after the Second World War, especially in connection with the demands of the Slovak school of translation and the annotated translations of older literature, initiated especially by Jozef Felix (François Villon, Dante) and others. In a cross-section spanning from historical forms, through important Slovak editions of older literature in translation, and up to the present day, the study reflects on the meaning and form of critical editions and, using examples mainly from French literature, it seeks to show their contemporary forms.