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THE LATIN SOURCE OF THE FOURTEENTH-CENTURY ITALIAN TRANSLATION OF ALHACEN'S DE ASPECTIBUS (VAT. LAT. 4595)

2001; Cambridge University Press; Volume: 11; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1017/s0957423901001035

1474-0524

A. Mark Smith,

Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies

That the medieval Latin version of Ibn al-Haytham's Kitāb al-Manā[zdotu]ir was translated into Italian in the fourteenth century has been known for well over a century. Recent studies have shown that this translation, which is contained in Vat. Lat. 4595, was instrumental in the composition of Lorenzo Ghiberti's Commentario terzo on art. Some eight years ago, the author of the present article tentatively identified the actual manuscript-source of that translation as MS Royal 12.G.7, which is currently held in the British Library. This study establishes beyond reasonable doubt that his tentative identification was correct: MS Royal 12.G.7 is indeed the Latin source for the Italian translation in Vat. Lat. 4595.