Note sulla definizione della possessio nel Festo Farnesiano (Napoli, BNN, IV. A. 3)

Abstract

The eleventh-century manuscript known as the Codex Farnesianus (now Naples, BNN, IV. A. 3) sole medieval witness of Sextus Pompeius Festus' work De verborum significatione, transmits Aelius Gallus' definition of the legal concept of possession (Fest. pp. 260-262 L.). The interpretation of this definition entirely depends on the reconstruction of the text. Two passages are problematical because of two blank spaces (fol. 11r int., lin. 3 and lin. 4), in connection with which the scribe characterizes the model of the manuscript as 'blind' (caecus). Lindsay's edition of Festus' work does not constitute a codicologically valid starting point of for a reliable reconstruction of the definition. Furthermore, the scribe of the Codex Farnesianus did most probably not reproduce the model with mathematical precision.