The Commentario terzo by Lorenzo Ghiberti and his volgarizzamenti of Vitruvius, Alhazen and the Medieval Perspectivists (2021)
Panti, Cecilia (Author)
Micrologus: Nature, Sciences and Medieval Societies
Volume: 29
Pages: 121-156
The compilative nature of the Commentario terzo by Lorenzo Ghiberti has posed serious problems to scholars as regards its structure, methodology and aim, which have been long debated. The text is a collection of volgarizzamenti from Vitruvius’ De architectura, Alhazen’s De aspectibus and the medieval optical works by Roger Bacon and John Peckham. This paper focuses on a single aspect of Ghiberti’s Third Commentary, namely his original interventions inserted within the flow of his translations. The first section of the paper recalls the main data concerning the Commentarii and their transmission in the only manuscript copy which conveyed them to us (Florence, BNC, II, I, 333); this is done through a supplementary examination of Giorgio Vasari’s statements concerning this precious witness. Then, a summary of the status quaestionis on the sources of the Commentario terzo introduces the discussion on selected specimens of Ghiberti’s volgarizzamenti from Vitruvius, Alhazen, and the medieval perspectivists. Their textual features illustrate how Ghiberti read, understood and used his scientific and literary sources in order to accomplish his huge effort to expose all aspects of a complex and multifaceted science of vision which, at his time, still spoke a demanding scholastic Latin.
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