AEVUM

The apparent overlap between Lady Philosophy’s surveys of the goods of fortune in Book II and III of Boethius’ Consolatio philosophiae has troubled commentators for more than a century now, but it is yet to find a satisfactory  explanation. Our analysis of the medical analogy in the text suggests that we can most effectively come to terms with this étrangeté of the Consolatio by taking into account the medical conditions that Lady Philosophy diagnoses Boethius with, as well as the different types of medicaments that she prescribes him. The first survey of the goods of fortune is part of a series of consolatory discourses that Lady Philosophy administers to Boethius in Book II as  fomenta (‘poultices’) intended to soothe his morbus perturbationum (‘disorder of the passions’), while the second survey coincides with the socalled apotreptic part of a protreptic discourse that Lady Philosophy administers to  Boethius in Book III as a remedium (‘remedy’) for his morbus lethargus (‘lethargic illness’).

The ms. Milano, Bibl. Ambrosiana C 243 inf. is an important testimony of the cultural north-Italian milieu: accomplished in the monastery of Bobbio in the IX3/3 century, the manuscript contains an unedited glossary, which reveals,  for its unfinished nature, traces of its elaboration process and of many readers’ use. The identification of two marginal glosses (Mediolanium and Romam) from the Libellus de situ civitatis Mediolani shed new light on the anonymous  key work about the origin of the Church of Milan. After several attempts by scholars to date the work, lastly in 1993 Paolo Tomea suggested that the Libellus de situ was written during the episcopate of Arnulf II, Archbishop of Milan  (998-1018); the two glosses, added within the X3/4 century, raise the issue of dating again.

The present contribution studies ms. Paris, BnF, Latin 5566, an 11th century hagiographical source assigned to Cluny, and reconsiders its origin on the basis of previously undetected liturgical elements, which pertain to the  Ambrosian tradition. Ms. Latin 5566 is formed of two codicological units, the first one from Milan and the second one from a Cluniac environment. The composite volume could therefore be the result of the political and religious  complex context of late 11th century Lombardy. This case study leaves room for considerations on the importance of evaluating liturgical features for a deeper understanding of manuscript sources.

MS Ambr. N 162 sup., XII century, probably Bologna, transmits two different still unknown works about penance: an anonymous prosimetron and a long poem. This article analyses the first one, a medieval versification of some  passages of Augustinian or pseudo-Augustinian texts on the subject of penance, expecially De vera et falsa poenitentia, that in the later Middle Ages had wide circulation under the name of Augustine. In this prosimetron the patristic and medieval sentences are accompanied by epigrams in elegiac couplets, where the anonymous author summarizes the content of the prose in poetry. The main themes of this text and the method of the versification are studied.

A little treasure of fragments from medieval parchment codices is found in the Archive of the Collegiata Insigne dei Santi Nazaro e Celso in Brescia. One of them is taken from an Italian Antiphonary (12th-13th century); another one  is of French origin and transmits Ovid’s Metamorphoses (13th century); the last one comes from an Italian Articella manuscript and transmits Galen’s Liber Tegni cum commento Haly (14th century).

The paper publishes a list of all the original papal letters concerning the Friars Minor preserved in Padua, covering the period up to the pontificate of Alexander IV. In addition, the contribution provides the complete edition of some  letters, in particular those addressed to the Friars Minor of Padua and of the province of the Marca Trevigiana (later called of St. Anthony), only partly known to scholars or in need of a new transcription. The letters of the papal  legates were also taken into consideration, which provide further important elements for the history of the relations between the papacy and the Friars Minor. Finally, it is interesting to make a comparison with the Liber privilegiorum  conventus Padue, a juridical collection produced in the first decades of the fourteenth century for the monastery of St. Anthony, contained in ms. 49 of the Pontificia Biblioteca Antoniana. The Liber contains papal letters and privileges of the Order of Friars Minor. The paper is the first contribution that begins to identify, as far as possible, the documents of the province of St. Anthony cited in the codex and still preserved.

The paper retraces the works in progress about the main medieval texts of Pistoia. These researches primarily consist of the critical editions of the volgarizzamenti of Albertano da Brescia translated by ser Soffredi del Grazia (1278)  and of Guido delle Colonne’s Historia destructionis Troiae, written in 1333 by Mazzeo di ser Giovanni Bellebuoni. After a description of the most important linguistic traits of the medieval Pistojese vernacular – seen as a “bifacial” and  “intermediate” language – and after some lexical notes from Mazzeo’s Troiano Riccardiano, the article compares parts of Soffredi’s volgarizzamento with the Latin lectio and the hand of MS. Riccardiano 770 (as well as with MS.  Magliabechiano XX 60), and it lastly draws a short profile of the Albertano Forteguerriano’s scripta, phonetics and morphology, which represent the “archaic” phase of the linguistic diachrony of the city where Cino de’ Sigibuldi was born.

Bibliotheca Gregorii Magni manuscripta: censimento dei manoscritti di Gregorio Magno e della sua fortuna (epitomi, florilegi, pseudoepigrafi, agiografie, liturgia). 4: Milano-Paris, a cura di Francesca Sara D’Imperio (A. Scalia), p. 441 – Marina Giani, Il «Liber glossarum» e la tradizione altomedievale di Agostino, introduzione di Francesco Santi (M. Dri), p. 441 – Prophecy and Prophets in the Middle Ages, a cura di Alessandro Palazzo – Anna Rodolfi (C.A. Bonifacio), p. 444 – Jean-Pierre Rothschild – Caroline Heid (dir.), La bibliothèque de l’abbaye de Clairvaux du XIIe au XVIIIe siècle. Tome II, Manuscrits conservés. Troisième Partie, Sermons et instruments pour la prédication, Manuscrits des cotes O, P, Q (A. Scalia), p. 447 – Manoscritti italogreci: nuove tessere di un mosaico frammentario, a cura di Santo Lucà con la collaborazione di Donatella Bucca – Francesco D’Aiuto (S. Serventi), p. 448 – Paolo Rosso, Le università nell’Italia medievale. Cultura, società e politica (secoli XII-XV) (M. Rainini), p. 450 – Francesco Petrarca e la sua ricezione europea, Atti del Convegno, Freie Universität Berlin, 9-10 novembre 2017, a cura di Giovanni Cascio – Bernhard Huss (S. Brusa), p. 452 – Maurizio Fiorilla – Irene Iocca (a cura di), Boccaccio (C. Ceccarelli), p. 454 – Benvenuto da Imola, Lectura Dantis Ferrariensis, ed. critica a cura di Carlo Paolazzi – Paolo Pasquino – Fabio Sartorio (G.C. Alessio), p. 456