Johann Froben, Beato Renano e un vetustus codex: interventi testuali sull’Apokolokyntosis di Seneca nella Basilea del Cinquecento

An edition of Seneca’s Apocolocyntosis published in Basel by Johann Froben in 1521 contains variant readings taken from an « old manuscript ». These readings find an almost perfect match with Beatus Rhenanus’ autograph variant readings set out in a book preserved in the Bibliothèque Humaniste de Sélestat. According to a study published by François Spaltenstein and Pierre Petitmengin in 1980, Rhenanus’ readings represent the work of the humanist on the so-called codex Wissenburgensis, which he used for his edition of the Apocolocyntosis printed in 1529. The discovery of this new document (the collation by Froben in 1521) may throw into question this conclusion and add a new element to the history of the transmission of the classical text in the first years of the sixteenth century.