Lorenzo Lorenzi and the Latin Translation of Galen's Commentary on Aphorisms: A Case of Plagiarism?

Abstract

 At the end of the fifteenth century the first humanist Latin translation of Galen’s Commentary on Aphorisms was printed. Its translator, Lorenzi Lorenzi (1459/60-1502), was not, however, the first humanist to attempt this task. His illustrious contemporary Angelo Poliziano had been translating the commentary even before Lorenzi. Poliziano, however, never published his translation and shortly after his death on the 29th of September 1494 the new translation by Lorenzi appeared (16th October). Due to a series of events the latter was suspected by contemporary scholarship of plagiarizing Poliziano. This article attempts to shed some light on this topic by means of a philological investigation. It provides an analysis of the translation’s technique according to the methods employed by Lorenzo Minio-Paluello, in order to outline its features and to verify its authorship. An appendix is devoted to retracing the Greek source of Lorenzi’s translation and to place it in the stemma codicum.