«Proprie quidem compilare est aliena dicta suis intermiscere». Il riutilizzo di fonti antiche e coeve in tradizione medievale

In the intentions of mediaeval writers, each literary reference came to acquire one or more special meanings, linked either to the context, the transformation of genres, the reinterpretation of the myths or the taking on of a renewed spiritual (or ethical, ideological, pedagogical or political) value. Terms such as plagiarism, copy, model, calque and loanword are thus anachronistic in a context such as this, where repetition and resemblance are actually categories of the art and where the joy of reusing reigns supreme. Dictionary definitions of auctor and auctoritas also point us in this direction. They were polysemic terms, often the exclusive appanage of juridical (religious, lay or university) culture, but with enormous implications in history, philosophy, law, art, literature and philology. In this paper, therefore, I will focus in particular on their Greek and Latin etymologies according to Isidorus, Papias, Uguccione, Osbern, Brito and Balbus, going back, as far as possible, to the Late Antique grammatical origins, identifying the sources, if identifiable, and noting the graphical variations, the interpretations of symbolic genre and the continuity with the humanistic-Renaissance tradition.