The' editio princeps' of Lucans’ 'Pharsalia' (Roma 1469): identification and incunable transmission of the textual (1469-1483)

Abstract

This article focuses on the philological analysis of the editio princeps of Lucan’s Pharsalia, prepared by Giovanni Andrea Bussi and printed by Sweynheym y Pannartz in 1469 (R). The aim of this paper is to identify the textual form that the editio princeps establishes and its immediate transmission during the incunable period. In the first place, the preparation of the edition is contextualized, concentrating on the principles that G. A. Bussi exposes in his prologues and on the controversy with Niccolò Perotti, in order to explain the criteria followed by G. A. Bussi to prepare the edition. R is described and some of its paratextual elements are analyzed, and the results of the internal and external collation of the edition are exposed. The variants that R introduces into the Lucan tradition will allow us to know the work of G. A. Bussi as editor and to identify the textual form of the Lucan editio princeps and its persistence during the incunable period from a critical point of view.