I danni della tradizione, l’umiltà dell’imperfezione. Boccaccio, la filologia e il pubblico

The preparation of Genealogia deorum gentilium and De montibus required Boccaccio’s hard work in order to collect and catalogue his sources. Hence came the question about the reasons which caused the loss of a large portion of the ancient literature and the damages occurred in the textual transmission; Boccaccio tried some new ways to find a remedy. He explained his thoughts in the prologue of Genealogia and epilogue of De montibus and similar – even if not identical – thoughts are to be found in Petrarch too; these all together are the first structured survey of the manuscript tradition problems. Boccaccio had a distinctive confidence that the restauration of a correct text was at least partially possible by means of philological co-operation of several scholars and of newly found better witnesses.