Composition and reception of Brunetto Latini's Li Livres dou Tresor - The price of a medieval bestseller

Abstract

The thesis focuses both on the composition and reception of Li livres dou tresor, a thirteenth-century encyclopedia by Brunetto Latini, a famous Italian politician and teacher (maestro) of Dante Alighieri. The thesis scrutinizes three key moments in the making and reception of Latini’s work: the original composition in Old French (1260-1266) by the author during an exile in France; the translation from the original Old French into Old Italian (1284-1299) by an author from Pisa, attested by manuscript L4 ; the transition from script to print by examining three early printed editions in Old Italian (1474, 1528, 1533).