Ps.-Aristotele, ›De mirabilibus auscultationibus‹

The book aims to illustrate the history of the transmission of the Ps.-Aristotelian work "De mirabilibus auscultationibus", ascribed to Aristotle since the Hellenistic period. The treatise is a collection of 178 short tales, each dealing with a different paradoxon (marvelous event). The work will provide a general overview of the manuscript transmission of the text and of its reception trough the centuries, from Byzantium to the late Renaissance. To this aim, each of the 23 witnesses of the text has been studied in detail and placed in an historical context which sheds light on the reception and circulation of the text at different stages and in different environments. Particular attention has been devoted to the investigation of the indirect tradition of the text (quotations, allusions and translations) throughout the centuries, from Athenaeus (II century AD) to Boccaccio. The materials collected in this book will be the basis for a better understanding of the text itself and will provide the starting point for a new – and much needed – critical edition of the work.