Giovanni Filippo De Lignamine e l’edizione della "Vita et laudes Ferdinandi regis", tra storia, politica e arte tipografica

This article focuses on Giovanni Filippo De Lignamine’s "Vita et laudes Ferdinandi regis" and examines the edition of the text published in 1472 by the humanist-printer in Rome. Thanks to the philological analysis of all the copies still extant, the entire process of publication has been reconstructed. The essay illustrates De Lignamine’s sophisticated printing practices: he produced different copies of this edition and a precious “esemplare di dedica” for the Aragonese family, which includes illuminations, manuscript integrations and stop-press corrections. On the basis of this study, the article also examines De Lignamine’s general publishing practices, his idea of the cultural and political role of the printing press, and the ideological significance of his biography of Ferdinando of Aragon: an important text that reveals De Lignamine’s conception of “history” and proves to have significant connections with fifteenth-century tradition of Aragonese political historiography.