The German Melibeus and other vernacular versions of the works of Albertano da Brescia

Abstract

Albertano da Brescia's three treatises are compilations, and therefore form a part of an enormous mass of mediaeval literature. This thesis performs two principal tasks as a step towards an assessment of the importance of Albertano as a compilist, and of his works as repositories of classical knowledge and therefore as source-material for the writings of many mediaeval and Renaissance authors. First, text-critical editions of two different translations into fifteenth-century German of Albertano's Liber consolationis et consilii (Melibeus) are given. An examination of the interrelationship and transmission of manuscripts and early prints reveals the great popularity of just one of these translations on the eve of the Renaissance. Second, a further indication of the popularity of Albertano's works throughout mediaeval Western Europe is given by the provision of details of all hitherto known manuscripts and early prints containing translations or workings of the treatises in the vernacular. Many of these are recent discoveries. In order to provide the reader with a wherever possible. Finally, an overview of works known to contain specific borrowings from Albertano is given, together with further literature, where this exists. The extent of the influence that Albertano's compilations exerted is indicated by the familiarity of the names of authors borrowing from him: Geoffrey Chaucer, Dante Alighieri, Christine de Pisan and Erhart Gross, to name just four.