The Circa instans by Pseudo-Mattaeus Platearius: for a History of its Diffusion, towards the Preparation of an Edition

Abstract

The critical edition of a medieval scientific work is a task not without its difficulties, in view of the open character of the majority of these texts, the impossibility to identify their authors, or the problems posed by the scientific lexis. However, since this paper aims at the critical edition of a work such as Circa instans, a pharmacological text by the Salerno Medical School, whose textual tradition presents over 200 manuscripts, the task is especially complicated. The present paper deals with the main problems, both external and internal, of the critical edition of the work: focusing on the status questionis about the different versions transmitted in the manuscripts; studying the typology of the manuscript diffusion in Latin and the characteristics of the manuscripts and textual corpuses; analysing the criteria which have been used for the grouping of the manuscripts; studying both the macrostructure and the microstructure of the text; and making methodological considerations as regards the preparation of the edition of Circa instans, such as the research of its sources and the study of the author’s language. Finally, the paper concludes with an appendix presenting a proposal for a critical edition of the prologue of the work with the provisional collation of ten texts from the textual tradition.