La Vita di Sant'Alessio

The only complete extant version of the life of Saint Alexius by the Milanese author Bonvesin da la Riva is to be found in Manuscript 93 of the Biblioteca Trivulziana from the late 14th century. Whereas earlier editors (Contini and Gökçen) were concerned to reconstruct the 13th century original, the present volume provides the first interpretive edition of this important Old Lombardic text. The historical linguistic aspect of the text is covered in the introduction, the notes, and a complete index of words and word forms. In terms of literary history, the volume also provides the foundations for an appreciation of Bonvesin as one of the first great Italian narrative artists.