“I libri degli eretici non sono eretici”. A codicological reading

Abstract

In the essays collected in Eretiche ed eretici medievali, La “disobbedienza” religiosa nei secoli XII-XV, a cura di Marina Benedetti (Roma, Carocci, 2023), manuscripts are studied or mentioned, observed in terms of their content and evaluated in terms of the circumstances and the people who commissioned, prepared and disseminated them. This essay, on the other hand, emphasises the materiality of the word: the paleographic and codicological characteristics of these manuscripts are analysed, also thanks to the digitised images available on the Internet, and are relevant to understanding the meanings attributed to these objects, independently of the religious and existential choices of those who held them in their hands.

Keywords

• manuscripts
• heresy
• codicology
• palaeography