Sul De syllabarum dinoscenda quantitate libellus di Giorgio Valla (ms. Paris, BNF, lat. 7552)

This article examines for the first time a pamphlet by Giorgio Valla handed down by the ms BNF, Paris. lat. 7552 (Georgii Vallae Placentini De syllabarum dignoscenda quantitate libellus) and so far neglected by scholars. The survey allowed us to demonstrate that it was a school book, arranged by Giorgio Valla when teaching Rhetoric in Pavia (1466-1476) as a preparatory text of the disciplines he taught. The book belonged to a pupil of the humanist, the future bishop and apostolic governor Lorenzo Fieschi from Genoa. This writing will be reused almost literally, around twenty years later, in the section De poetica of the De expetendis et fugiendis rebus concerning the syllabic quantity (book XXXVIII, chapters ix-xxxviii). This reuse of material already published is consistent with the practice normally adopted by Giorgio Valla in compiling his monumental encyclopedia.