Nuove evidenze codicologiche e implicazioni ecdotiche sul testimone W della <i>Cronaca rimata di Livonia</i>

Abstract

This article presents a new codicological and philological analysis of a fragmentary witness of the Livonian Rhymed Chronicle: ms. W, housed in the National Library of Poland. Based upon previously overlooked features and newly identified verses, the study confirms that W – datable to the early 14^th century – is the earliest extant witness of the chronicle. The analysis further clarifies the composition of the fragment, its dialectal profile, and its stemmatic position in relation to the other major witnesses, ms. H (Heidelberg, Universitätsbibliothek, Cpg 367) and ms. R (once at the Library of the Livonian Order in Riga, currently lost). Lastly, the study discusses nineteenth-century editorial strategies and advocates for a modern critical edition, also incorporating the readings of W, as a premise for a renewed philological and historiographical reassessment of the chronicle.