29424 - Seminars (1) (LM) (G.A)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the seminar, students will improve their command of language, literature, and/or of other branches of knowledge that can be considered as similar or useful toward the development of their competences. Such aim will be pursued through the interaction with acknowledged scholars and experts in the various branches of knowledge.

Course contents

The seminar aims at make students acquainted with the literary genre of the "research tools" and with the works conveying knowledge during the Middle Ages. During the seminar we will introduce, read, and discuss some "best-sellers" such as dictionaries, encyclopedias, collections of exempla and sermons, Biblical commentaries, as well as philosophical and scientific commentaries written between the 6th and the 14th century. The texts will be selected according to two criteria: first of all, according to the their dissemination and diffusion during the Middle Ages; secondly, because of their usefulness for all modern scholars who intend to grasp how knowledge was handed over during the Middle Ages. In this sense, those works will prove useful when performing tasks such as the search for sources, the identification of texts and topics, and the discovery of central cultural and literary patterns of Medieval culture.

Readings/Bibliography

Texts (selection): Glossa ordinaria, Strasbourg 1480-1481; Vincenzo di Beauvais, Speculum maius, Douai 1624 (repr. Graz 1964);Hugutio Pisanus, Derivationes, ed. E Cecchini et al., Firenze 2004.

Studies (selection): Glossaires et lexiques médiévaux inédits : bilan et perspectives : actes du Colloque de Paris, 7 mai 2010, ed. J. Hamesse, Porto 2011; Encyclopédire : formes de l’ambition encyclopédique dans l’Antiquité et au Moyen Âge, ed. A. Zucker, Turnhout 2013; R.H. Rouse - M. A. Rouse, Authentic witnesses : approaches to Medieval texts and manuscripts, Notre Dame 1991; G. Lobrichon, La Bible au Moyen Age, Paris 2003.

Further readings concerning the texts discussed during the Course will be put at students' disposal during classes.

Teaching methods

The course will consist in 30 hours of seminars, during which Prof. Ventura and students will read and discuss a selection of writings we consider as useful to appreciate the development of the literary genre of "research tools" employed by learned scholars and authors during the Middle Age.

Moreover, a section of the course will be devoted to introduce students to the use of research tools used by contemporary scholars and researchers working on topics related to the Middle Ages.

Assessment methods

The exam will consist of an interview. Students have two options; they may:

- prepare a short lecture on a text they will select, and present it by using the further readings they will put together with the assistance of Prof. Ventura at least one month before the exam;

- undergo an interview and answer the questions put by Prof. Ventura.

Whatever decision they will make, students should demonstrate that

- they grasp the nature, the meaning, the purpose, and the extent of the diffusion and the reception of the text;

- they are able to access and use data and information included in the texts;

- they can connect it with the development and the history of Medieval culture.

Teaching tools

The text we will discuss will be uploaded on the platform IOL (Insegnamenti online).

Further readings will be presented to students during classes.

Office hours

See the website of Iolanda Ventura