UN FRAMMENTO COMICO LATINO NELL’EPISTOLA DI CANDIDUS A NICCOLI

The article presents a study of the textual history of a letter sent to Niccolò Niccoli by a certain Candidus (Pier Candido Decembrio ?) in 1412 or 1413. New witnesses are identified, among them Florence, Bibl. Naz., Conventi Soppressi C.II.38, the archetype, and a new critical edition is provided. In addition further evidence is given for reconstructing the library of Giovanni Corvini in Milan (for which Candidus’ letter gives important information), and it is shown that Candidus there saw a MS of a Latin comedy of Republican date which is now lost (Plautus’ Parasitus piger?). A reconstruction of a fragment from the prologue is attempted; Candidus appears to have paraphrased it fairly accurately, and four iambic senarii can be recovered. The second of two appendices offers the editio princeps of a letter by Pier Candido Decembrio to Niccoli transmitted by a MS in Florence (Riccardiana 827).