Retrodatazioni di etnici da un volgarizzamento inedito delle Epistole dello Pseudo Bruto

Abstract

This paper aims to introduce the Greek Letters attributed to Marcus Junius Brutus as part of the lexicographical research on the assimilation of Classical (Greek and Latin) demonyms in Italian. The work is a collection of seventy short messages allegedly sent by Brutus to the Greek and Asian communities during the Roman civil war. In the last decades of the 15th century, Niccolò Angeli from Bucine translated them into Latin and into Italian. The tradition of the Italian translation is limited to one unedited manuscript, Firenze, Bibl. Riccardiana, Riccardiano 2692. Thanks to this volgarizzamento, we can antedate some of the demonyms recorded in the Deonomasticon Italicum (DI) (lesbi) and add some others missing in the DI (caunii, coi, corycii, myrensi, patarei, ecc.).