An unexpected rediscovery
In 1392, Coluccio Salutati, chancellor of Florence, asked for a copy of the manuscript of the Letters to Atticus, famously discovered by Petrarch in 1345 in the Chapter of Verona; a happy accident brought to him a copy (‘P’ = Mediceus 49.7) of another manuscript (‘M’ = Mediceus 49.9), which contained 16 books of Epistulae Ad Familiares, and had been located previously in the town of Vercelli (hereafter it was brought back to Florence, where it is first mentioned by Poliziano in 1489). M, dating probably from the 9th century, had been transferred to Vercelli by the then bishop of Vercelli, counselor of the Holy Roman Emperor Henry II, by AD 1000, at a time when, after the disintegration of the empire of Charlemagne, the Saxon princes and emperors favored
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Citation: Prost, François. "Epistulae ad Familiares". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 09 August 2012 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=20490, accessed 22 November 2024.]
