Retorica accademica tra studium e università nella recente edizione degli actus scholastici di Simone da Cascina

Simone da Cascina’s actus scholastici have been recently edited by Marina Soriani Innocenti. Simone da Cascina, a Dominican friar from Pisa, magister in this city’s studium from 1380 to 1420, offers a unique testimony to the passage from Medieval to Humanistic preaching, having left an enormous, autographed manuscript containing sermons for several occasions, saints, feasts and the actus accademici, chronologically ordered, presenting the speeches he delivered for the start of the year’s academic lessons and for graduation, and a set of documents pertaining to licenses. The present paper underlines the importance of this edition for studies concerning the history of the Medieval and Early Modern University, as a pole of attraction for learned men, and Late Medieval Rhetoric. The editiom also reveals the actus’ connection to the Church and their role in accademic life, students, deans, and masters, and the places where graduations were celebrated.