I volgarizzamenti catalani di valenza politica (dal giovane re Alfonso alla prima stampa)

This article aims to establish afresh the stages of the evolution (c. 1350-c. 1500) of translations into Catalan of classical works useful for the political formation of the nobility and private citizens. The first stage is centred around the royal family (until 1410), via the courts of northern France and Avignon (section 1). In his youth, King Al- fonso of Aragon (r. 1416-1458) endeavoured to recover the earlier translations (and the French manuscripts that originated them), but no new Catalan versions of historical works or moral philosophy through royal patronage are recorded (section 2). Instead, from c. 1425 onwards, we witness the growing dissemination of Cicero’s moral treatises (especially De officiis and Paradoxa stoicorum) thanks to the initiative of private citizens; this stage is characterised both by direct Italian influence and the prominent role played by lawyers and other men with school education (section 3). The following section (4) highlights the central role of the newly established court in Naples in 1443 in the formation of several individuals responsible for the publication in Catalan of some snippets of humanistic knowledge (by Pier Candido Decembrio, Guarino de Verona or the Panormita) from 1480. In section 5 the effect (not always positive) of incunabular printing on this output is noted; as an example, a Catalan version of the Liber de vita et moribus philosophorum (Naples 1499), which includes a fragment from Ambrogio Traversari, remained unpublished.