29027 - Italian Medieval Literature (1) (LM)

Course contents

The course aims to offer students some authors or main themes or motifs of our literature of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, considered in themselves or in their fortune. Instead, space will be given to the Latin literature of our Humanism, as well as to the textual nodes that characterize the philological story of our ancient writers, will be given in the lessons of Prof. Loredana Chines. From one and the other path, which together constitute MEDIEVAL AND HUMANISTIC ITALIAN LITERATURE AND PHILOLOGY, students should be taught the interpretations of the broad horizon of our ancient literature, from the XIII to the XV century.

SUB NOMINE NOBILITATIS. In particular, the lessons will focus on the question of the nobility, from Stilnovo to Boccaccio, with particular attention to Guinizzelli, the Vita Nova, Dante's moral songs (in particular Le dolci rime, with the fourth book of the Convivio which offers the commentary), framed in the context of Florentine social and political history at the end of the thirteenth century. The question of nobility will also be addressed in the Decameron and some aspects and evolutions will follow, which, on the background of the Stilnovo, will define and mature a reflection of complete modernity.

Readings/Bibliography

For Dante, reference is made to the following works: the edition of the Convivio, edited by G. Fioravanti and C. Giunta, is found in Dante Alighieri, Convivio, edited by Gianfranco Fioravanti, in Id., Opere, edition directed by Marco Santagata, II: Convivio, Monarchia, Epistole, Egloge, edited by Gianfranco Fioravanti, Claudio Giunta, Diego Quaglioni, Claudia Villa, Gabriella Albanese, Milan, Mondadori, 2014. From the same volume, you will read the first book of the Monarchia, edited by D. Quaglioni. To these premises and to the reading of the Vita Nova in the edition published by G. Gorni (Opere, vol I, ibid., 2011) will be added the study of a series of short stories from the Decameron (which will be indicated in class), in the edition edited by M. Veglia, Milan, Feltrinelli, 2020. To critically approach the question, the student is required to choose three contributions from the following list: Umberto Carpi, La nobiltà di Dante, 2 vols., Florence, Polistampa, 2004 (the first chapter of the first volume); Giorgio Inglese, Vita di Dante. Una biografia possibile, Rome, Carocci, 2015; Alessandro Barbero, Dante, Bari-Rome, Laterza, 2020, pp. 19-30 and 116-134. More broadly, see the studies by Paolo Borsa, Sub nomine nobilitatis. Dante and Bartolo da Sassoferrato, in Studi dedicati a Gennaro Barbarisi, edited by Claudia Berra and Michele Mari, Milan, Cisalpino, 2007, pp. 59-121; Id., “Le dolci rime” di Dante. Nobiltà d’animo e nobiltà dell’anima, in Grupo Tenzone, Le dolci rime d'amor ch'io solea, edited by Rosario Scrimieri, Madrid, 2014, pp. 57-112. Essential, now, Enrico Fenzi, Dante politico, in Dante, edited by Roberto Rea and Justin Steinberg, Rome, Carocci, 2020, pp. 219-244.

Teaching methods

The lesson, especially the "masterful", should have a seminar character. For this reason it would be important that the students bring the texts in the program and get used to discussing them with the teacher.

Assessment methods

The verification consists of an oral exam on the topics covered in class and on the texts in the exam program (with the distinctions mentioned for attending and non-attending students). There are no written tests or essays.

Office hours

See the website of Marco Veglia