Errors of Interpretation: Vincenzo Maggi and Sperone Speroni Readers of Francesco Robortello

This paper considers errors of interpretation in textual criticism in Renaissance Italy. It focuses on the reading of Francesco Robortello’s In Aristotelis poeticam explicationes, published in Florence by Lorenzo Torrentino in 1548, and the readers in question were Vincenzo Maggi and Sperone Speroni. The paper shows how errors of interpretation can relate either to a misunderstanding of the original text or of its translation. It is a significant case because it concerns the first “critical edition” with commentary of one of Aristotle’s most neglected works, the Poetica.