IL COSIDDETTO PARADOXOGRAPHUS PALATINUS Edizione critica, traduzione e commento filologico e interpretativo

The 21 short chapters of mirabilia, known under the name of Paradoxographus Palatinus (PP), have been traditionally regarded as a stand-alone paradoxographical collection dated to the Imperial age (III sec. a. D.), mainly composed of ‘third hand’ texts, with several textual corruptions, especially regarding the toponyms. Those brief chapters have been repetedly investigated during the XX century and the beginning of XXI century, without substantial new findings in terms of ecdotic choices and interpretation. The perspective of analysis of the present work is different from the one adopted by previous editors and commentators; it intends to consider the extensive excerptum of Aelian’s Natura animalium and the 31 non-aelianean passages it contains – 21 of which are traditionally named PP – as the result of a single cultural operation. That means examining the PP within the excerptum from Aelian, as an integral part of it. This perspective lead to an edition which differs greatly from the previous ones. The main results and the elements of novelty can be summarised as follows: from an ecdotic point of view, 10 additional chapters are here published (some represent previously unpublished texts in ancient Greek) and all the long-standing textual problems related to the toponyms have been resolved; in terms of dating of the work, it has been moved from the III to the XI-XII century; from an interpretative stand-point, the very paradoxographical nature of the text has been questioned, an attempt has been made to identify the modus excerpendi of the author and the cultural context to which he belonged, the contribution the PP may offer to the study of other important works and authors has been examined (the paraphrase of the didactic poem Ἰξευτικά and the Θαυμάσια by Callimachus in primis, but also Athenaeus from Naucratis, Artemidorus the geographer, Aristotle etc.), many of the phenomena described in the chapters have been identified and explained (sometimes with clear modern evidence).