I codici della Pantegni tra tradizione e innovaizone

The aim of this essay is to analyze the preserved manuscript witnesses of the Pantegni, a medical encyclopedia translated from Arabic by Constantine the African, according to a quantitative approach. Thanks to the study of the earlier codex, the contribution shows that the translator and the Cassinese scriptorium in which he worked made specific choices in associating the innovative medical doctrine of allogenic origin with manuscripts of precise characteristics, and that there are both significant differences and similarities with respect to manuscripts with medical content prior to the end of the 11th century. In the second place, by considering the Pantegni manuscripts dated between the 13th and 14th centuries, the essay analyses how such innovative choices were received in these centuries and what kind of dissemination the work had in the university era.