Roman Sosnowski

Four Italian manuscripts from the Berlin collection recently re-discovered in Kraków. Notes complementing previous catalogues

In this paper I present the detailed descriptions of the Italian manuscripts re-discovered recently in Kraków and considered lost in 2012 when the catalogues of the collection were being printed. The inquiries at the time revealed that four of the Italian manuscripts listed in the Lemm’s old inventory were neither in Kraków nor in Berlin as well as some other manuscripts deposited in the boxes during the Second World War. Thankfully, these boxes were discovered in 2014, and inside there were the Italian manuscripts believed to be lost forever. In order to complete the 2012 catalogues and in accordance with the criteria adopted therein, I offer the descriptions of the four manuscripts, thus completing the long-standing work of the Fibula group on Romance manuscripts from the Berlin collection.

* The research for this publication has been supported by a grant from the Heritage Priority Research Area under the Strategic Programme Excellence Initiative at Jagiellonian University. Flagship Project: European Treasure in the Jagiellonian Library Core Facility.

Geometry in a book of mathematical riddles from the beginning of the 16^th century

In this paper we present and analyse, from the linguistic point of view, the treatise Giuochi mathematici written by Piero di Niccolò d’Antonio da Filicaia. It is a very appealing witness of the history of the recreational mathematics from the beginning of the 16^th century. After a brief introduction of Piero’s cultural background, we describe the structure of the treatise and its sources. We deal especially with the fourth part of Giuochi mathematici in which the author imitates the contents of Alberti’s Ludi matematici. Our analysis shows that textual reworking is quite deep although there is continuity as far as terminology and contents are concerned.

*Articolo realizzato nell’ambito del progetto di ricerca 2016/21/B/HS2/00744 finanziato con i fondi del National Science Centre of Poland.

The article reviews methods (according to the classification proposed by Krzysztof
Hejwowski) of translating cultural elements as used by Grzegorz Franczak in his
Polish version of Carmina Catulli. It is argued that the cultural distance between Latin
and Polish is more evident than any difference between modern language cultures. In
these circumstances it is necessary to pay particular attention to translation of culturebound
terms and expressions, because misinterpretations may be a serious risk. As the
analysis shows, Franczak addresses this issue very carefully and, as a consequence, an
overall evaluation of his translation of Catullus’ poems is highly positive.

In the paper we deal with the development of Latin possessive suus and with changes in use of the
possessive from Latin to Italian. Citing examples from the Latin classical literature we demonstrate
the inconsistencies and weaknesses of the grammar system that led to incoherent use of the linguistic
forms and to consequent changes in the system itself.
By analyzing sentences chosen mostly Caesar’s works we reached the conclusion that in Latin
had not existed specialized pronominal forms employed exclusively in the oratio obliqua structures.
Suus, se, sibi were used in order to establish referential identity of different elements which resulted
in co-occurrence of identical forms that pointed to completely different referents. The evolution of the
language in the 6th century abolished the difference between reflexive and pronominal form (classical
Latin suus and eius). Such shift was a result of the incoherent employment of those forms in the oratio
obliqua. At first, that usage was context-depending, then it was extended to become general and
normative, which led to disappearing of the diversification between reflexive and pronominal forms.

This paper investigates the language of the vernacular version of Lanfranco’s Chirurgia parva in the manuscript Ital. Quart. 67 kept at the Jagiellonian Library in Krakow. The brief description of the linguistic traits leads to the determination of the place of origin of the manuscript. From the initial idea that the manuscript was made in Northern Italy, through the examination of orthographic, phonetic, morphologic and lexical features, I arrive at the conclusion that the codex must have been written in Veneto, and more precisely in central Veneto, maybe in or near Padua. The language itself may be described as the expression of the “koiné di terraferma”, a very characteristic Venetian variety of the 15th century that combined local and Tuscan characteristics.