The «Collocutio Friderici Regis Siciliae et nostra, lecta et communicata Sedi Apostolicae» by Arnau de Vilanova (+1311): A Rehabilitation

The aim of this article is to analyse and explain the differences between the text written by Arnau de Vilanova and edited by M. Flacius Illiricus (transcribed from an unidentified codex and currently lost) in 1562 under the title Collocutio Friderici Regis Siciliae et nostra, and the text edited by M. Menéndez y Pelayo (Barcelona, Arxiu de la Corona d'Aragó, Diversos i collecions, Casa Reial, Ms. 1) in 1879 under the title Interpretatio facta per magistrum Arnaldum de Villa nova de visionibus in somniis dominorum Jacobi Secundi Regis Aragonum et Frederici Tertii Regis Siciliae. Since Menéndez's edition, the idea has spread among Arnau de Vilanova scholars that both works were the same and that the differences were simple textual variants of little importance. The article concludes that the Collocutio is actually the complete and definitive version of the work, and that the Interpretatio is a partial version corresponding to a previous stage in the redaction of the work. Collocutio is also the definitive title.