Il volgarizzamento della Brevis introductio ad dictamen del codice Riccardiano 2323

Overview & Synopsis

Brevis introductio ad dictamen by Giovanni di Bonandrea was one of the most popular Latin treatises on ars dictaminis in the fourteenth century. Around the middle of the same century even a Florentine translation of Bonandrea’s work was made, probably for a personal use. This book offers a critical edition of this vernacular version, which is contained in manuscript 2323 of the Biblioteca Riccardiana, which dates from the first half of the fifteenth century. The text, stylistically modest, is linguistically very interesting, as it testifies to the restricted circulation of the ars dictaminis lexicon in the vernacular. The Introduction attempts to identify the cultural milieus in which the text was written and examines modes of translation and problems of attribution and dating. Great attention is also paid to the Latin tradition of the Brevis introduction ad dictamen, in an attempt to identify the witnesses that most closely match the Latin antigraph used by the translator. The critical text, which updates Francesco Zambrini’s entirely unsatisfactory 1854 edition, is accompanied by a commentary that offers information on the main exegetical, linguistic and stylistic issues, with special emphasis on comparisons with the Latin text. The volume is closed by a glossary of the terms of grammatical, rhetorical and metrical vocabulary found in the translation of the treatise: in many cases they represent the first attestation in Italian.