Commentare e tradurre: Bartolomeo Fonzio, Giovanni Tortelli e il ms. Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett, 78 C 26 per Ercole I d’Este

Abstract

Cecilia Sideri: Translating and Glossing One’s Own Translation: Bartolomeo Fonzio, Giovanni Tortelli and MS Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett, 78 C 26 for Ercole I of Este

The article analyses a series of autograph glosses written by the Florentine humanist Bartolomeo Fonzio on the dedication copy of his vernacularization of Lucian’s Περὶ μὴ τοῦ ῥᾳδίως πιστέυειν τῇ διαβολῇ (Calumniae non temere credendum), composed in 1472 for Ercole I of Este.
The paper argues that the explanatory glosses for the Duke of Ferrara, rather than being the result of an erudite research by Fonzio, consist in a simplified vernacular rendering of entries of Giovanni Tortelli’s De orthographia, a crucial reference work that was extensively used by the Florentine humanist in the 1460s – 1470s.