Il problema testuale del Libro di divina dottrina di Caterina da Siena

This paper focuses on the textual issues relating the manuscript transmission of the Dialogo, the Book of the Divine Doctrine by Catherine of Siena, who dictated it to her scribes in her Sienese vernacular. The history of textual criticism of the Book, as often happens with the texts of mystical spirituality, leaves some questions unresolved, mainly related to the use that has been made so far of the scribal copy. Through the analysis of the explanations of the stemmata proposed by Bacchisio Motzo (1930), Giulio Bertoni (1938) and Giuliana Cavallini (1995), compared with the parallel manuscript transmission of the Latin version of the Book, the essay lays the foundations for a reconsideration of the entire tradition of this writing.