The Disappearance of Leo Africanus: Rival Repertoires of Historical Scholarship in the Mid-Twentieth Century.

This article examines two twentieth-century efforts to produce editions of Johannes Leo Africanus's 1526 *Cosmography and Geography of Africa*: a successful, collaborative French colonial edition led by Alexis Épaulard and a single-authored, academic Italian edition by Angela Codazzi that never appeared. Drawing on archival research, it contrasts the French team's practical, geographically informed, and collaborative approach—rooted in the colonial humanism of institutions like the Institut français d'Afrique noire—with Codazzi's philological, historicist, and solitary method shaped by Italian oriental studies and gendered academic constraints. The article highlights how Codazzi's refusal to collaborate and her strict philological focus limited her understanding of the text's intercultural nature, whereas the French edition better reflected Leo's engagement with Italian readers and the geographic realities of Africa. Ultimately, the study situates these editions within broader disciplinary and institutional contexts, illustrating differing scholarly repertoires and their impact on the reception and interpretation of Leo Africanus's work.