Appendix 1 - Limitations of Grayson's Studies on De Pictura
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 June 2011
Summary
Between 1968 and 1973, Cecil Grayson consolidated his research concerning Alberti's De Pictura. In the first of three publications, he analyzed the three vernacular manuscripts;(1) in the second, he produced a face-to-face English translation of his version of collated Latin manuscripts in sixty-three paragraphs(2) – I have adopted his division of paragraphs in this volume – and, finally, in the third, he published the vernacular in facing pages with the Latin.(3)
As for the vernacular manuscripts, Grayson came to the conclusion that the Florentine was the most reliable. His “critical apparatus” consisted of systematic analysis of certain passages and a judicious selection of some quite convincing discordances.(4) Although Bonucci and Mallè had already transcribed the manuscript, Grayson further perfected the text.
For the Latin draft, however, Grayson's “critical apparatus” was less successful.(5) He lists and only partly describes the twenty-odd manuscripts, unaware that none was an autograph or even revealed autograph corrections. However, he does divide the manuscripts into two groups; the first group, representing the version that Alberti could have written around 1435, lacks the erroneous “dedication” letter to the prince of Mantua, whereas the second group contains it.
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- Leon Battista Alberti: On PaintingA New Translation and Critical Edition, pp. 89 - 92Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011