The fate of a Byzantine manuscript during the Renaissance (Laurent. LXXIV, 7) (pl. 53-56)

Abstract

It is known that Post-byzantine painting was greatly influenced by Western painting mainly through the wide circulation of prints. There is a unique case, however, of a byzantine medical manuscript of the 10th cent. (Laurent. LXXIV, 7) bought by Janus Lascaris in 1492 on account of Lorenzo di Medici, which constituted the source for the text of two 16th century Greek manuscripts (Paris. Graec. 2247 and 2248) and of one in Latin (Paris. Lat. 6866). The latter lead to a Parisian edition of 1544 translated into Latin by Vidus Vidius and dedicated to King Francis I, entitled «De Chirurgia e Graeco in Latinum conversa interprete . .» (pi. 54, 2). This article is mainly concerned with the illustrations accompaning the text of the manuscripts made by the 16th century artist Francesco Salviati and his assistant (pis. 55, 1 - 2). These drawings were based on the original byzantine illustrations and on some schematic drawings made by a friend of Janus Lascaris, the Greek doctor Johannes Santorineus (pis. 53, 1 - 2). The purpose of this study is to evaluate the importance of the intermediary role of the doctor's drawings which clarified the byzantine illustrations and served as the prototype for Salviati's drawings (pis. 53, 1-2 and 55, 1).