Il Libro degli allumi e dei sali: status quaestionis e prospettive di studio

This article deals with a book of medieval arabic alchemy commonly known as Liber de aluminibus et salibus (The Book of Alums and Salts). The article provides the status quaestionis about this work, presents an analysis of the existing studies about it (mostly those by Steele, Ruska and Patai) and gives an updated survey of the problems related to the arabic, latin and hebrew manuscripts containing this text. Attention is given to the debate about the book’s authorship, its sources and the linguistic issues emerging from the different extant copies. Eventually, some guidelines for possible future studies on this subject are drawn.