From sedes to solium: dating the Bible translations of Giannozzo Manetti (1396-1459)

Abstract

In the 1450s, the Florentine humanist Giannozzo Manetti (1396-1459) translated the Psalter and the New Testament into Latin. These translations were part of a larger translation project, originally intended to comprise the entire Bible, which Manetti took up at the court of Pope Nicholas V (1447-1455). It is unclear when each part of the translation was written, and which one was made first. This paper explores the possibilities of using Manetti’s lexical choices to reconstruct the translation process and to come to a relative dating of his Psalter and his New Testament.