Il peso dell’anima tra Oriente e Occidente: psicostasia e tradizioni apocrife nella "Visio Thurkilli"

Abstract. This study compares the Visio Thurkilli, a thirteenth-century English visionary narrative, with the Greek apocryphon Testament of Abraham, highlighting striking thematic and structural parallels. Although there is no evidence for direct knowledge of the text in the Anglo-Norman world, the paper explores the possibility of mediated transmission through florilegia, collections of exempla, and oral narratives, within the broader framework of intense cultural exchanges between East and West. Particular attention is given to St. Albans Abbey and to the circle of translators working around Robert Grosseteste, Nicholas the Greek, and John of Basingstoke, whose linguistic and cultural mediation may have provided the material for a reworking of the Visio Thurkilli in light of the Greek apocryphal tradition.