A Copy of Sacrobosco’s Sphaera in Mirror Script Attributed to Matteo Zaccolini

Laurenza Domenico

2016-01-01

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Abstract

The essay presents an anonymous manuscript containing a 17th century Italian translation of the Sphaera, the medieval cosmological treatise by Johannes de Sacrobosco. The manuscript is written in mirror writing, from right to left and this, together with other evidences, suggests an attribution of the manuscript to Matteo Zaccolini (1574-1630), author of treatises on perspective and colors of relevant scientific interest and painter, who, according to coeval sources, had become so proficient in reading Leonardo da Vinci’s manuscripts as to adopt Leonardo’s mirror script in his own texts. The manuscript would be the only known autograph by Zaccolini, being his treatises on colors and perspective copies made on behalf of Cassiano del Pozzo in the 17th century. These treatises have never been published and his work is only known to Leonardo da Vinci’s scholars and to the art historians. This essay aims therefore also to let the science historians know about Zaccolini, a typical representative of the interaction between theory and practice in 17th century optical and, more generally, mathematical sciences. The study includes the fortune of Leonardo’s scientific manuscripts and the link between optical studies and the enduring fortune of Sacrobosco’s Sphaera.