28494 - Paleography (1) (LM)

Academic Year 2020/2021

Course contents

The critical study of handwritten sources: problems, method, potentialities and perspective. The course aims at introducing students to the critical study of manuscripts, allowing them to understand the importance of a direct approach to the sources and to know the potentialities of paleographical approach for historical, philological, diplomatistic studies and more generally for cultural studies.

1) Basics principles. It will be examined the general basics of the discipline through the analysis of different types of script, from the origins to XVII cent.; students will also start studying the abbreviation system, in order to provide the basic tools to read, interpret, transcribe and date handwritten texts. The course will develop through the reading, the paleographic examination and the contextualization of some examples and facsimiles provided at lesson taken from sources, both documentary and codicological, of various ages and backgrounds, useful to illustrate the variety of graphic types which have occurred in the history of Latin writing.

2) Problems of attribution. It will be also illustrated the complexity of the problems of attribution, dating and authenticity that the handwritten sources can pose.

3) Critical edition of handwritten sources. Special attention will be also paid to the contribution of paleography to the critical edition of the handwritten sources, and in particular to diplomatics (documents and charters) and to philology (books and codices).

Readings/Bibliography

1) Attenders:

  • G. Cencetti, Paleografia latina, Roma 1978
  • B. Bischoff, Paleografia latina: antichità e medioevo, ed. italiana a c. di G. Mantovani e S. Zamponi, Antenore, Padova 1992, pp. 257-340
  • Didactic material provided during the course.

2) Unattenders:

  • G. Cencetti, Paleografia latina, Roma 1978
  • B. Bischoff, Paleografia latina: antichità e medioevo, ed. italiana a c. di G. Mantovani e S. Zamponi, Antenore, Padova 1992, pp. 257-340

Two articles chosen among the following:

  • C. Aimi, M. Modesti, A. Zuffrano, Il frammento bolognese del De civitate Dei di s. Agostino: un nuovo palinsesto goto-latino. Considerazioni paleografiche e cronologiche, edizione e analisi filologica del testo, in «Scriptorium», 67 (2013), fasc. 2, pp. 319-359;
  • S. Ammirati, Per una storia del libro latino antico: i papiri latini di contenuto letterario dal I sec. a.C. al Iex.IIin. d.C., in «Scripta», 3 (2010), pp. 29-45; url: <JSTOR [https://www.jstor.org/stable/26490584?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents] >
  • S. Ammirati, Per una storia del libro latino antico: osservazioni paleografiche, bibliologiche e codicologiche sui manoscritti latini di argomento legale dalle origini alla tarda antichità, in «Journal of Juristic Papyrology» 40 (2010), pp. 55-110; url: <academia.edu>
  • P. Fioretti, Sul paratesto nel libro manoscritto (con qualche riflessione sui 'titoli' in età antica), in Nel segno del testo. Edizioni, materiali e studi per Oronzo Pecere, a cura di L. Del Corso, F. De Vivo, A. Stramaglia, Firenze 2015, pp. 179-202; url: <academia.edu>
  • P. D. Stirnemann, M. H. Smith, Forme et function des écritures d’apparat dans les manuscrits latins (VIIIe-XVe siècle), in «Bibliothèque de l’Ecole des Chartes», 165 (2007), pp. 67-100 <http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/bec_0373-6237_2007_num_165_1_463491 >
  • L. Iannacci, M. Modesti, A. Zuffrano, La misteriosa scrittura grande dei papiri ravennati, tra prassi documentaria pubblica e legislazione, in «LR Legal Roots. The International Journal of Roman Law, Legal History and Comparative Law», 1 (2012), pp. 89-119;
  • A. Petrucci – C. Romeo, Scrivere «in iudicio» nel «Regnum Italiae», in «Scriptores in urbibus». Alfabetismo e cultura scritta nell’Italia altomedievale, Bologna 1992, pp. 195-236;
  • E. Condello, La Bibbia al tempo della Riforma gregoriana: le Bibbie atlantiche, in Forme e modelli della tradizione manoscritta della Bibbia, a cura di P. Cherubini, Città del Vaticano,BAV, 2005, pp. 347-372 Url: <https://www.academia.edu/8373472/CONDELLO_La_Bibbia_al_tempo >
  • F. Santoni, Copisti-“editores” di manoscritti giuridici. 1. Il codice Vaticano Latino 1406 del “Digestum vetus” e l’edizione del testo fra copisti e glossatori, in La collaboration dans la production de l’écrit médiéval, Paris 2003, pp. 231-249 url: <http://www.scrineum.it/scrineum/biblioteca/santoni-digestum.pdf >
  • I. Ceccherini, La genesi della scrittura mercantesca, in Régionalisme et internationalisme: problèmes de palèographie et de codicologie du Moyen Âge, édités par O. Kresten et F. Lackner, Wien 2008, pp. 123-138, url: <academia.edu>
  • D. Ganz, Can a scriptorium always be identified by its Products?, in Scriptorium. Wesen – Funktion – Eigenheiten, München 2015, pp. 51-62
  • L. Holtz, Glosse e commenti, in Lo spazio letterario del Medioevo. 1. Il Medioevo latino, La ricezione del testo, III, direttori G. Cavallo, C. Leonardi, E. Menestò, Roma, Salerno editrice 1995, pp. 59-111;
  • M. H. Smith, Les “gothiques documentaires”. Un carrefour dans l’histoire de l’écriture latine, in «Archiv für Diplomatik», 50 (2004), pp. 417-466, url: <academia.edu>
  • E. Condello, Tradizione e innovazione: la produzione libraria dentro e intorno alla cancelleria pontificia nel XIV secolo, in I luoghi dello scrivere da Francesco Petrarca agli albori dell’età moderna, Spoleto, CISAM, 2006, pp. 135-162
  • P. Bertrand, Une codicologie des documents d’archives existe-t-elle? Codicologie et diplomatique, vessies et lanternes, in «Gazette du livre médiéval», 54 (2009), pp. 10-18 url: <academia.edu>
  • S. Zamponi, La scrittura umanistica, in «Archiv für Diplomatik», 50 (2004), pp. 467-505, url: <academia.edu>

Teaching methods

Frontal lessons and practical workshops concerning reading and analysis of documents.

The course will start on February 3rd and it will finish on March 5th 2021.

Assessment methods

1) Attenders: the exam consists in an oral test divided in two parts:

a) one or more general questions about the history of Latin writing, on the basis of the manuals;

b) the reading and the paleographical analysis of an handwritten source similar to those seen during the course, with particular regard to potential problems of transcription, edition, dating and attribution that it presents, and using the methods and the critical tools acquired during the lessons. There will be especially evaluated the critical abilities demonstrated in the reading, above all in the cases of problematic points in the texts.

2) Unattenders: the exam consists in an oral test divided in two parts:

a) one or more general questions about the history of Latin writing, on the basis of the manuals. It will be evaluated the knowledge and the comprehension of the main steps of the History of the Latin writing and of the fundamental principles and method of the discipline.

b) one or more specific questions about the two articles chosen by the student. Special attention will be given to the critique abilities of the student, who will have to demonstrate to be able to orient himself into the world of manuscript sources, handing the tools and the method of Paleography.

In the both cases (attenders and unattenders) the achievement of a systematic and complete comprehension of the basic principles of the discipline, joined with their critical use, in addition to the demonstration of owning the competence of the specific language, will be evaluated with excellence marks. A mechanical and/or mnemonic knowledge of the subject, bad structured analysis abilities and/or a correct but not always appropriate language will lead to decent evaluations; formative lacks or an inappropriate language – even if in a context of basic knowledge of the exam material – will lead to marks that will not go beyond sufficiency. Formative lacks, inappropriate language, scarcity of orientation in the bibliography offered during the course will be evaluated in a negative way.

Teaching tools

During the course there will be provided reproductions and fac-similes of handwritten sources, exemples of critical editions and information about the main data-bases and digital tools of paleographical type (only for attenders). Facsimiles can be downloaded from the site: materiale didattico

Office hours

See the website of Maddalena Modesti