At the threshold of historiography. : Manuscript miscellany as a form of historical writing in medieval Southern Italy

The article discusses selected forms of interventions around and into the historical texts assembled in three miscellanies from the 14th century (BAV, Vat. lat. 5001; Paris, BnF, fr. 688, and Naples, Biblioteca Nazionale, VIII.C.9). Three aspects of editorial agency of their designers are of particular interest. First, the selection of pre-existing works according to certain thematic threads. Second, presenting the miscellany to a target audience. The destination other than private may be hypothesized from the paratext or near-contemporary evidence of use. Third, the modifications of the original paratextual apparatus and also the very content of the received texts. It is argued that in virtue of the variety and scale of those interventions, the three miscellanies verge on historical writings.Non peer reviewe