IFloridadi Apuleio: prolegomena, testo critico e traduzione [latest version]

This work supplies the results of new research on the manuscript tradition of Apuleius’Florida. It offers the data of a new and thorough collation of the fundamentalLaurentianus Plut. 68, 2 (= F), XI c., now heavily damaged, and of its apograph,Laurentianus Plut. 29, 2 (= f), XII-XIII c. Also their most difficult to read passages have now been deciphered through an autoptical analysis and the help of advanced optical instruments. Moreover, an important group of manuscripts has been enhanced, the Class I, of which the best representative is theAmbrosianusN 180 sup. (= A), XIII2c. The data gathered on this witness does not confirm the hypothesis advanced by several scholars of the independence of the Cl. I from F. However, even though it corroborates the thesis of a unique recensio, this data shows the importance of A, which reveals a facies of the ancestor F that is very close to the original and turns out to be an essential instrument to check its now illegible writings. The contribution of some editiones veteres has also been shown, especially theeditio princeps(1469). On the basis of these new acquirements the critical text has been constituted, in severallociin a different way from previous ancient and/or modern editors, defending lections of F unnecessarily modified till now or proposing correctionsope ingenii. For the first time the variants of A have been systematically recorded in the apparatus, together with Ff. An Italian translation completes the work.