75839 - Seminar (1) (G-E)

Learning outcomes

In spite of their strong impact upon modern and contemporary culture, technical languages and scientific literature are very often left out by school programs. The main core of this seminar will be the analysis of themes, words and texts in order to highlight elements of continuity and discontinuity, analogies and differences between the ancient vocabulary and the modern one. The various themes will be studied trough a selection of classical texts and on the basis of key-words belonging to the intellectual vocabulary of each branch of knowledge.

Course contents

NB:

Seminars will be held every tuesday, from 3 to 5 pm, in Aula A (Zamboni 32 - ground floor)

The course begin on tuesday, 8 october

 

1. Literature and medicine (physician, disease and therapy)

Lectures from ancient medical and biological literature (Hippocrates, Plato, Aristotle, Galen, Celsus). Special attention will be given to the relationship between physicians and society and between ethics and medicine; the analysis of literary passages (Sophocles, Menander, Thucydides, Lucretius, Virgil, Horace, Lucian) will show the diffusion and the richness of medical and biological vocabulary.

2.Literature, chemistry and alchemy

The oldest texts about alchemy, written in the Greco-Roman Egypt (I-IV AD), will be analysed, with a main focus on pseudoepigraphic texts (attributed to pre-Socratic philosopher Democritus and the goddess Isis) and the works of the first historical alchemist, Zosimos of Panopolis. Technical language will be compared with the lexicon of medicine and physical sciences (Dioscorides, Pliny the Elder, Neoplatonic tradition). 

3. Literature and astronomy (myths and constellations)

Lectures from Plato, Aristotle, Aratus, Cicero, Seneca, Hyginus; the aim is to show the origin, the development and the diffusion of the astronomical vocabulary. Special attention will be paied to the relationship between mythology and the name and disposition of the constellations.

4. Ancient tradition beyond Antiquity

With the help of some case-studies it will be analysed how scientific knowledges and technical languages came frome Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. also through relationships with other languages and cultures (e.g Syriac and Arabic tradition)

Some texts will be red in translation, other in Latin. The purpose is to highlight the main features of each technical vocabulary, as well as their influence on modern vocabulary.

 

Readings/Bibliography

• Notes: the texts will be handed out during the lessons; then they will be uploaded on the online teaching materials.

At least two readings:

• One reading from the following list: I. Dionigi – E. Riganti – L. Morisi, Il latino, Bari, Laterza, 2011, 511-594; C. De Meo, Lingue tecniche del latino, Bologna, Pàtron, 2005.
• One reading from the following list: Medicine: I. Andorlini - A. Marcone, Medicina, medico e società nel mondo antico, Firenze, Le Monnier Università, 2004;  Gourevich, Jouanna e Vegetti in Storia del pensiero medico occidentale. I. Antichità e medioevo, a cura di Mirko D. Grmek, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2007. Astronomy: L. Russo, La rivoluzione dimenticata. Il pensiero scientifico greco e la scienza moderna, Milano, Feltrinelli, 2010⁶ (§§ 1-8). Alchemy: Michela Pereira (a cura di), Alchimia. I testi della tradizione occidentale, Milano, Mondadori/Meridiani, 2006 (letture antologiche indicate a lezione); Eric John Holmyard, Storia dell’alchimia, Firenze, Sansoni, 1972 (rist. Odoya, 2009; è la traduzione italiana di Alchemy, Harmondsworth, Penguin Books, 1957), §§ 1-6.
  

Teaching methods

The seminar will be organised as a series of workshops, with the participation of others teachers under the coordination of prof. Dionigi. Frontal lessons and seminars will be followed by moments of collective and single work. Attendance is mandatory.

Assessment methods

The principal means of evaluation will be attendance and participation. In a viva voce examination the student will be asked to discuss some themes and texts analysed during the lessons in order to verify both his competencies and critical analysis.

Serious faults in the capacity of critical reflexion and in the knowledge of the lexicon studied (and on morphology as well) will be cause of non suitability.

Examination will deal with themes and texts analysed during the lessons; through the readings it is also required an in-depht analysis about at least one technical field.

Teaching tools

Handout will be upload on the online teaching materials

Office hours

See the website of Ivano Dionigi