Descrizione
The annotated transcription in this book is the product of the first comprehensive investigation into the relationship between the Historia Imperiale (the target text),and all of Riccobaldo’s extant works; an investigation which has included those textual sources available to Riccobaldo, as the historian, and to Boiardo, the translator. This research indicates that where the four main Latin texts by Riccobaldo can be compared with the narrative of the Historia Imperiale, generally the volgarizzamento is closest to at least one of Riccobaldo’s Latin works. The quantity of material close to Riccobaldo’s own prose vastly outweighs the material for which no sources have yet been found.
Further, this study draws together evidence of the versatility of Boiardo’s work as a court-oriented translator. The Introduction and commentary to the text show a translator fully engaged in the modernisation of the material, while also committed to translating the source text. The translator transforms the Latin history into a more palatable and compelling narrative, with the aim of improving and contextualising the content of Riccobaldo’s text. Consequently, the Historia Imperiale is both a significant byproduct of the cultural patronage of Ercole I of Ferrara, and an important document for the study of early modern translation in Renaissance Italy.
Il curatore
Andrea Rizzi is the Cassamarca Lecturer in Italian Studies at the University of Melbourne, Australia. He graduated at the Università degli Studi, Pavia, and obtained his Ph.D at the University of Kent at Canterbury (UK). He has published widely on translation history, Matteo Maria Boiardo as a translator, and the history of Venice
