Sul volgarizzamento della <i>Guerra gotica</i> di Procopio di Cesarea di Niccolò Leoniceno

Abstract

Niccolò da Lonigo was a leading figure in Ferrarese Humanism, teaching in Padua, Ferrara, and Bologna, and translating lesser-known Greek historical texts into the vernacular, including works by Procopius, Dione Cassius, Lucian, Polybius, and others. He promoted the first Italian version of the Guerra gotica (books V–VIII), produced around 1470. Today, 6 manuscripts of his recensio are known, notably the precious codices at the Biblioteca Estense and the Ambrosiana, copies at the National Library in Rome and the University Library in Bologna, as well as an unpublished codex in the Marciana Library and another Vatican manuscript bearing a dedication. Some manuscripts share dedications to the duke and author preface, others identical marginal annotations, and still others matching decorative features, traceable to Ferrara. The Marciana manuscript uniquely includes a short Ferrarese chronicle recording significant events of the Este family between 1490 and 1500.