The 'Chinese' Theory: For and Against

[Jorge_Stolfi]

I investigated a little about the origins of the name "Bonaventura" and it's a nickname based on "bona ventura" (good luck). Therefore the genitive "boneventure" (or the equivalent "bonaeventurae") was clearly understandable to those familiar with Franciscan lore.

That may have been "understandable", and a common error -- but it was wrong.  It is not me saying that, it is the Proofreading scribe who corrected that "e" to "a", together with all the other Rubricator's mistakes.

Whatever the origin, "Bonaventura" was a proper first name (not a nickname, although it  was based on the phrase "bona ventura") and it was Italian not Latin.  So the internal declension of "Bona" to "Bone" was not appropriate.  

And the final "e" in your image clip seems to have a  cedilla on top instead of on the bottom.  Isn't that evidence that a simple "-e" ending would be incorrect (as the Proofreader apparently thought)?

And anyway the whole attribution to St. Bonaventura seems to be an error -- the true author was Jacobus Mediolanensis (Giacomo da Milano?).

And even if we conceded that "Bone" was correct in that "explicit", and the Proifreader was wrong, we still have the other five or six errors...

I still stand by my point: that "explicit" rubric is an example of how many errors a scribe can make if he is not fluent in the language he is copying.

All the best, --stolfi