The legend of Mohammed and the Cardinal Nicholas

The aim of this paper is to offer a critical edition, with translation and commentary, of Liber Nycholay, an anonymously authored Latin text of Italian origin, probably Roman, which could be dated back to the second half of the thirteenth century. Liber Nycholay presents a curious version of the legend of Mahoma, according to which he would have originally been a Roman cardinal called Nicholaus, whose frustrated ambitions to papacy led him to found a new religion in revenge. The text combines data on the Islamic doctrines and practices with anachronisms and legendary details further verified in other mediaeval texts. This edition has been drawn from the two existing manuscripts of the work, the Parisinus BN lat. 14503 and the Vaticanus Reginensis Latinus 627.