This short essay analyses Pavone’s interest on critical editions of contem­porary sources and the position and value in his work of the critical edi­tion of the Garibaldi Brigades documents (1943-1945), produced during the Italian Resistance. Published in three volumes (1979), the collective work, together with G. Carocci, G. Grassi and G. Nisticò, lasted for almost the entire decade of 1970, and had a strong impact on the elaboration of the two main historiographic works: La continuità dello Stato (1974) and espe­cially Una guerra civile (1991).