90551 - Medieval Latin Philology (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

Upon successful completion of the course the students 1) acquire advanced skills about the application of the philological method for the textual tradition of the Latin Middle Ages; 2) know the main unsolved problems in the philological method; 3) know in depth the relationship between philological work and literary criticism; 4) realize the critical edition of a medieval Latin text.

Course contents

Philology and literary criticism. How, when and why we make the critical edition of a Latin text of the Middle Ages

The course is divided into two modules.

Module 1

1.1. First of all, the motivations. Why and how should we critique texts in the age of Artificial Intelligence and beyond it? Why the Latin Middle Ages? The first lessons will be devoted to understanding and discussing this, focusing on the issue of the authors' language, and therefore on the relationship between literary criticism and philology, but also emphasizing the reasons why the study of the Latin Middle Ages and and its possible poetics are a historiographical priority, including to assess the vitality of Latin in different circumstances during the medieval millennium and to understand the processes of civilization underway. This will introduce reflection on the key notion for textual criticism: the notion of error.

1.2. Last year, I attempted to present the tools, procedures, and skills necessary for textual criticism by attempting a micro-edition (a short Carolingian letter written by Ebbone, Archbishop of Reims). I will try to do the same this year, building on the skills that students already have, emphasizing them a little, and acquiring new ones. We will start with a good old edition (last year an edition of the Monumenta Germaniae Historica) and put it to the test. We should learn: (A) to establish the canon of manuscripts; (B) to collate and examine the collation, also in relation to the choices of the ancient editor, identifying the guiding errors and experiencing the anxiety of not finding any really good ones; (C) to learn that an edition is a hypothesis of a text full of literature and full of history; (D) to verify whether a constituted text can be improved or at least whether its critical apparatus can be improved.

Module 2

2. Finally, we will attempt a new edition ourselves, choosing a text that needs it. It will be a text from the 13th-14th centuries, which I will choose taking into account the interests and skills of the people who will be taking the course, showing them various possibilities, also to help them understand what it means for a text to need a new edition and also to relate it to the skills they believe they have acquired. See below for an idea of the texts we have worked on in previous courses and those published or in preparation for printing (in Teaching Methods).

Readings/Bibliography

1. Lectures summary, textual critic's exercises available online by the teacher

2. Seven chapters selected by student within one of the following works (with the exception of G, which must be prepared in full).

(A) Claudio Leonardi et al., Letteratura latina medievale (secoli VI-XV), un manuale, Firenze 2002; (B) Gustavo Vinay Alto medioevo latino. Conversazioni e no cur. Massimo Oldoni - Ileana Pagani, adiuv. Corinna Bottiglieri - Iolanda Ventura, Napoli, Liguori 2003² pp. 507 (Nuovo medioevo 14) (prima edizione: Napoli, Guida editori 1978); (C) Claudio Leonardi Medioevo latino. La cultura dell'Europa cristiana cur. Francesco Santi, praef. I Deug-Su - Oronzo Limone - Enrico Menestò, Firenze, SISMEL. Edizioni del Galluzzo 2004 pp. XX-900; (D) Francesco Santi L'età metaforica. Figure di Dio e letteratura latina medievale da Gregorio Magno a Dante Spoleto (Perugia), Centro italiano di studi sull'Alto Medioevo (CISAM) 2011 pp. XVIII-404 tav. 1 (Uomini e mondi medievali. Collana del Centro Italiano di Studi sul Basso Medioevo - Accademia Tudertina 25). (E) Franz Brunhölzl, Geschichte der lateinischen Literatur des MittelaltersI-II München 1975-1992 (also Histoire de la littérature latine du moyen âge I-II, Paris 1990-1992. (F) AA.VV. Medioevo latino e cultura europea cur. A. Paravicini Bagliani-F. Santi, Firenze, SISMEL 2021 (G) Peter Stotz Il latino nel medioevo. Guida allo studio di un'identità linguistica europea cur. Luigi G.G. Ricci, Firenze, SISMEL Edizioni del Galluzzo 2013 pp. XXX-261 (Galluzzo Paperbacks 2) (transl. of Peter Stotz,  Handbuch zur lateinischen Sprache des Mittelalters, I, München, C.H. Beck (Handbuch der Altertumswissenschaft).

3. Seven chapters selected by student within one of the following works.

(A) Giovanni Orlandi Scritti di filologia mediolatina cur. Paolo Chiesa - Anna Maria Fagnoni - Rossana Eugenia Guglielmetti - Giovanni Paolo Maggioni, Firenze, SISMEL. Edizioni del Galluzzo 2008 pp. XII-916 tavv. 57 (Millennio medievale 77. Strumenti e studi. N.S. 19); (B) La critica del testo mediolatino. Atti del convegno (Firenze, 6-8 dicembre 1990) cur. Claudio Leonardi, praef. Horst Fuhrmann, Spoleto (Perugia), Centro italiano di studi sull'Alto Medioevo (CISAM) 1994 pp. VIII-455 tavv. 2 (Società Internazionale per lo Studio del Medioevo Latino (S.I.S.M.E.L.). Biblioteca di «Medioevo latino» 5). C) La trasmissione dei testi latini del Medioevo/Mediaeval Latin Texts and their Transmission I-VIII, cur. P. Chiesa-L. Castaldi-V. Mattaloni, Firenze, SISMEL 2004-2024 (Millennio Medievale).

Readings sincerely recommended but not direct object of the examination: Giorgio Pasquali, Storia della tradizione e critica del testo, Firenze, Le Monnier, 1952, pp. XXIV-525 (also cur. Dino Pieraccioni, Firenze, Le Lettere 2003); Gianfranco Contini, Breviario di ecdotica, Milano, R. Ricciardi 1986, pp. 252 (or at least Filologia, cur. Lino Leonardi, Bologna, Il Mulino 2014, pp. 127).

4. One short medieval latin work of choice (in critical edition) by one of the following authors: Boethius, Cassiodorus, Gregory of Tours, Gregory the First, Colombanus of Bobbio, Bede the Venerable, Paul the Deacon, Alcuin of York, Einhard, Walafrid Strabo, Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim,Letaldus of Micy, Gerbert of Aurillac, Anselm of Canterbury, Pietro Alfonsi, Goeffrey of Monmouth, Peter Abelard, Heloissa Paracletensis abbatissa, Bernard of Clairvaux, Hildegard of Bingen, Walter of Châtillon, Richard of Saint Victor, Alan of Lille, Francis of Assisi, Carmina Burana,James of Vitry, John of Plano Carpini, William of Rubruk, Thomas of Aquino, Bonaventura of Bagnoregio, Salimbene of Parma, Angela of Foligno, Ramon Llull, Dante Alighieri, Invitatorium ad amorem sanctae humilitatis, Nicholas of Cusa.

Students who do not attend the course must bring two Middle Latin texts among those indicated (nr. 4).

 

Teaching methods

The aim of the course is to teach how to produce a critical edition of a Latin text from the Middle Ages and to acquire full awareness of how the production of an edition involves linguistic, methodological and procedural skills of varying levels; above all, we will strive to develop full historical and literary awareness regarding the language of the author of the text for whose edition we take responsibility. Like climbing a wall a critical edition may have varying degrees of difficulty, but in any case it helps to see the world from a whole other point of view.

The course will entail (A) a commitment on the part of the instructor to present the intellectual and methodological issues involved in text criticism, but also (B) an attempt to set up an editorial laboratory, using all the resources that the Web offers today (databases, texts and digitized manuscripts). Therefore, an attempt will be made to lead the students to the creation of a critical edition, which constitutes a real advancement for our studies and worthy of publication. Sometimes we succeed and sometimes we do not, but even when we do not succeed (this is not necessarily for negative reasons). Cases from previous years are as follows:

(A) Bonaventure of Bagnoregio Sermo de diversis n. 59 de sancto Francisco (AA. 2019/2020)

(B) Arnau de Vilanova, Eulogium (edition published in the journal Franciscana 23 (2021) and presented with an in-depth discussion of methodological issues in Sign and Text 21 (2023). (AA. 2020/2021)

(C) Gerard of Auvergne, Prologus of the Abbreviatio Historiae figuralis (AA. 2021/2022)

(D) The Epitomes of the Historia beati Nicolai de Tolentino in the Abbreviatio Historiae figualis of the 15th century. With editions of four editions of the Vita Nicolai in the legendaries of Hermann Greven and Johannes Gielemans (edition published in the journal Hagiographica. Journal of Hagiography and Biography 30 (2023) (AA. 2022/23).

(E) Miracula beati Dominici text dictated by Cecilia Romana to Angelica of Bologna, Hagiographica. Journal of Hagiography and Biography 32 (2025).

(F) La Vita Herlucae di Paolo Bernried (1130). The first story dedicated to the life of a visionary woman (AA. 2023/2024)

(G) Informatio Petri Ioannis dovuta a Pietro di Giovanni Olivi (gruppo A) e anonima Vita Idae, estatica del secolo XIII (gruppo B). In preparazione.

Students with SLD or temporary or permanent disabilities. It is suggested that they get in touch as soon as possible with the relevant University office (https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en ) and with the lecturer in order to seek together the most effective strategies for following the lessons and/or preparing for the examination.

 

 

 

Assessment methods

The final exam consists of an interview (normally about thirty minutes). Topics:
1. Medieval Latin Literature: authors, works, manuscripts.
2. How and why a critical edition?
3. Presentation of the poetics of the chosen work.

The interview always begins with a topic that is congenial to the student.

Students with SLD or temporary or permanent disabilities. It is necessary to contact the relevant University office (https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en ) with ample time in advance: the office will propose some adjustments, which must in any case be submitted 15 days in advance to the lecturer, who will assess the appropriateness of these in relation to the teaching objectives.

Teaching tools

Online (and off-line) manuscripts.

Infrastructure electronics online

Office hours

See the website of Francesco Santi