Livro de Isaac: edição crítica da tradução medieval portuguesa da obra de Isaac de Nínive

Abstract

The study by César Nardelli Cambraia, published in 2017, comes to light as the first edition to disclose the critical text of the Portuguese medieval translation of the Book of Isaac, an ascetic treatise originally written in Syriac around the end of the seventh century by Isaac of Nineveh . Careful work, based on the comparison of the four surviving testimonies in which the translation was preserved. It is a critical edition with the purpose of restoring the genuine form of the text, the original form of the Portuguese translation of the book in question. As the author himself states, it is a "synthesis work of a series of studies on the subject made between May 1996 and April 2017" (CAMBRAIA, 2017, p. XIII). The book presents, in a very well-grounded way, four parts. The first one contains relevant information on the life of Isaac of Nineveh and his works, specifically on the Book of Isaac, its contents, circulation in the Portuguese Middle Ages, historical course, description of the testimonies that make up its tradition, linguistic characteristics, and his publishing fortunes. Of the second, the critical text, the norms of edition, the criteria for the choice of the base text and variants, the transcription, special cases and the critical apparatus. From the third, the selective glossary. From the fourth, the index of citations and biblical and patristic references.