The main objective of this research project is the critical edition of the vernacularisation of the first Deca of Livy. Transmitted by 43 witnesses, it is part of the panorama of Florentine vernacular translations of the 1320s, with the peculiar characteristic of having been carried out not directly from Latin but rather from a translation from Latin into French that is now lost. Since the main purpose is to provide a critical edition, the Oxford, Bodleian Library, Canoniciano it. 146, autograph of Filippo Ceffi, will be used as the base manuscript. This is because, together with the extreme accuracy of its reading, biographical investigations and ecdotic evidence strongly suggest that the vernacularisation can be attributed to Ceffi himself. 

The ecdotic data collected so far have made it possible to identify three editorial phases, each of which gives rise to a specific branch of the tradition. Therefore, it will be necessary to distinguish between variants attributable to the author and variants of tradition, so as to ensure not only a correct assessment of the dynamics of textual transmission, but above all an in-depth analysis of the authorial interventions, which is essential for understanding how the text was corrected and modified during the three editorial phases. The edition will include a genetic apparatus documenting the author’s own process of elaborating the text, allowing for an analytical reconstruction of the text’s genesis through its progressive diachronic transformations, up to its final form. Once the text has been established, the critical edition will also be produced in digital format, with XML/TEI markup. Finally, the research aims to offer an overview of the vulgarisation that takes into account the methodological complexities of the specific case and its historical and cultural implications.