Jean Matal y su copia anotada de los “Epigrammata Antiquae Vrbis” (Vat. Lat. 8495): el uso de las fuentes manuscritas

Abstract

Among the different copies of the Epigrammata Antiquae Vrbis (1521) published by J. Mazochius and abundantly annotated by 16th century humanists, Jean Matal’s (ms. Vat. Lat. 8495) is undoubtedly the one that reveals the clearest objectives and the most systematic work method. The importance of Matal’s efforts, as well as those of his many informants, to correct the inscriptions based on their autopsy has already been highlighted. However, his study of several manuscript sources, to which he also compared the printed texts, has remained largely unnoticed. In this paper we progress in the identification of these manuscript sources and we analyse the work method developed by Matal, for which he deserves to be considered not only one of the forerunners of epigraphical science, but also the initiator of the use of philological tools in the edition of epigraphic texts.