La versione tedesca della <i>Lettera di Frate Sigwalt</i>. Analisi della tradizione manoscritta e nuova edizione critica

Abstract

The Letter of Brother Sigwalt (Bruder Sigwalts Brief) is a prophecy in German language about the future of the Holy Roman Empire that predicts a particular role for the imperial city of Nuremberg in the history of the Empire. The citizens of Nuremberg, due to their moral integrity, will attain the glory of Rome and become the ‘new Romans’. This prophecy had a wide dissemination in the late Middle Ages and the early modern period. In this paper, I present a new critical edition of the prophecy based on the text preserved in Coburg, Landesbibliothek, MS Sche. 16 2˚, f. 313vb – 314vb, one of the five witnesses from the 15th and 16th centuries actually known. The edition is based on the guiding manuscript principle. The text of the Coburg manuscript is presented as faithfully as possible, limiting editorial interventions to the strictly necessary. The aim of the edition is to provide a historically attested text in the form in which it was actually received at the time. The edition is accompanied by a translation of the prophecy into Italian.