This project investigates the reception of Lanfranc of Milan's Chirurgia magna in the Germanic-speaking world, focusing on both the texts and the vernacular terminology used to convey medical and surgical concepts. Despite its significance, many medieval and early modern Germanic translations of Lafranc's work have been overlooked by scholars, while others have been misinterpreted and mistakenly recostructed. The first objective of the project is to systematically catalog and analyze the complete tradition of Lanfranc's Chirurgia magna in the English and German languages.

What Are Our Goals?

This project has three main objectives:

1. To produce a new critical edition of the Chirurgia magna in Middle English, incorporating a comprehensive analysis of all available manuscripts;
2. To create the first critical edition of the German translations of Lanfranc's Chirurgia magna, based on a detailed examination of the manuscript tradition;
3. To investigate and compare the vernacular rendering of the Latin specialized terminology used in both the English and German traditions, highlighting how medical and surgical concepts were adapted in each language.

Through these efforts, the project aims to shed new light on the reception and transformation of Lanfranc's influential work across medieval Europe, offering valuable insights into the development of medieval medical discourse in the vernacular languages.

This project is funded by the Italian Ministry of University and Research (PRIN 2022) within the NextGeneration EU program.