00567 - Latin Literature

Learning outcomes

Students will acquire an exhaustive knowledge of theoretical and methodological foundations of language sciences.

Course contents

I. SPECIAL FOCUS COURSE (lessons in class)

I. MONOGRAPHIC COURSE (classroom lectures)
Cosmic Time and Existential Time
• Module I (F. CITTI): readings from Horace’s Odes and Seneca’s The Shortness of Life.
• Module II (L. GALLI): readings from Lucretius and Virgil’s Bucolics.

The specific list of passages—the translation of which from Latin to Italian will be required during the final exam—will be included in the course materials.

II. LATIN LITERATURE (classes; individual study):

The insights on genres and authors, presented during the lessons in class, should be integrated by a general historical framework. In particular, knowledge of the following authors of Latin literature is required:

Augustine, Apuleius, Catullus, Caesar, Cicero, Ennius, Juvenal, Hieronymus, Livy, Livius Andronicus, Lucanus, Lucilius, Lucretius, Martial, Naevius, Horace, Ovid, Petronius, Plautus, Plinius the Elder, Propertius, Quintilian, Sallustius, Seneca, Statius, Suetonius, Tacite, Terentius, Tibullus, Virgil.

III. LATIN LANGUAGE; TEXTUAL CRITICSM, METRES
Students are in charge of this part

IV. AUTHORS (in Latin): Students are in charge of this part

1. Cicero: Pro Archia.
2. Vergil: Aeneid, Book 4

V. TRANSLATION TEST
The exam (monographic section) includes the oral translation of a short sentence (from a text not listed in the syllabus) from Latin to Italian.

LESSON TIMES: ...., beginning .... September .... 2026.

PRACTICAL EXERCISES: Recordings of the practical exercises on Cicero and Virgil (including an explanation of the hexameter) will be uploaded as part of the course materials; instructors will schedule online sessions to answer questions that arise from studying the online materials.

Students who did not attend class. Students who were unable to attend class or obtain the lecture notes are required to substitute the texts analyzed during the sèecoaò focus course (Section I) with a study of Virgil’s Aeneid, Book VI, and Seneca’s The Shortness of Life in Latin.
We recommend the annotated editions by A. Albertini: Eneide, libro 6, Roma, Ed. Alighieri, 2005, by A. Traina: La brevità della vita, Bologna, BUP, 2017 or by G.Williams, Seneca. De Otio, De brevitate, Cambridge, CUP, 2003. The other requirements of the syllabus (readings, literature, institutions, translation) remain in effect.

Students with learning disabilities, temporary or permanent We recommend that you contact the relevant university office (https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/it) and your teachers immediately so that you can work together to identify the most effective strategies for following classes and/or preparing for exams.

Readings/Bibliography

I. SPECIAL FOCUS COURSE
Slides or pdf containing the Latin texts will be uploaded to the course website at the link "Materiali didattici"; further bibliography will be suggested as well.

In addition to the notes from the lessons, it is compulsory to read the following essay: G. B. Conte-A. Barchiesi, Imitazione e arte allusiva in Lo spazio letterario di Roma antica , I, La produzione del testo, Roma, Salerno Editrice, 1989, 81-114.

Students are also supposed to read one from the following essay:

• Orazio: A. Barchiesi, Carmina: Odes and Carmen Saeculare, in S. Harrison (ed.), Cambridge Companion to Horace, Cambridge, Univ. Press, 2007, 144-161; • F. Citti, La poesia del tempo: analisi tematica, in Studi oraziani. Tematica e intertestualità, Bologna, Pàtron, 2000, 105-127.
• Seneca: A. Traina, Lo stile “drammatico” del filosofo Seneca, Bologna, Pàtron 19954 (e successive ristampe), 9-41: • A. Traina, Il tempo e la saggezza, in Seneca, La brevità della vita, comm. di A. T., Torino, Loescher, 1970 [Bologna, BUP, 2017], oppure in Seneca, La brevità della vita, introd., trad. e note di A. T., Milano, BUR, 5-21.
• Lucrezio: I. Dionigi, Modello grammaticale e modello fisico, in Id., Lucrezio. Le parole e le cose, Bologna, Pàtron, 2005 (3a ed.), pp. 11-38; • A. Schiesaro, Simulacrum et imago. Gli argomenti analogici nel De rerum natura, Pisa, Giardini, 1990, chap. 4: Il processo di civilizzazione, pp. 140–159, or chap. 3: Le analogie diacroniche, pp. 91–139.
• Virgilio: A. Cucchiarelli, Un punto di svolta. Le Bucoliche di Virgilio, in L. Galasso (ed.), La letteratura latina in età ellenistica, Roma, Carocci, 2021, pp. 191-215.

NB: Please notice that the essays are compulsory for not attending students as well. Not attending students have to prepare Vergil, Aeneid, book VI and Seneca, De brevitate vitae instead of the Latin texts read during the courses.

 

II. LATIN LITERATURE

G.B. Conte, Letteratura latina. Manuale storico dalle origini alla fine dell'impero romano, Firenze, Le Monnier, 2002 [also in Engl. transl.: G.B. Conte, Latin Literature: A History, Baltimore, The John Hopkins UP, 1994].

 

III. LANGUAGE, TEXTUAL CRITICISM AND LATIN PROSODY

Language: I. Dionigi - E. Riganti - L. Morisi, Il latino, Bari, Laterza 2011 is recommended. As for the syntax: A. Traina, Sintassi normativa della lingua latina, Bologna, Cappelli, 1993. As an alternative, Allen and Greenough's New Latin grammar, Ginn & Company, Boston-NY-Chicago, 1903 (both for syntax and morphology). See also A. Traina - G. Bernardi Perini, Propedeutica al latino universitario, Bologna, Pàtron, 2007, chapt. I-VI.

Textual criticsm and Latin prosody: A. Traina - G. Bernardi Perini, Propedeutica al latino universitario, Bologna, Pàtron, 2007, chapt. VII-VIII.

IV. AUTHORS

Cicero: Difesa di Archia, saggio introduttivo, traduzione e note a cura di D. Pellacani, Sant’Arcangelo, Rusconi, 2020 (in print)

Vergilius: Aeneis, Book 4, from Eneide, introduzione di A. La Penna, traduzione e note di R. Scarcia, Milano, Rizzoli BUR 2002, or Virgilio, Eneide, traduzione di M. Ramous, introduzione di G.B. Conte, commento di G. Baldon, Venezia, Marsilio, 1998.

Teaching methods

Lectures in class on part 1 and on some issues of part 2 (History of Latin literature) and 3 (prosody, textual criticism); students are in charge of part 4 and 5.
Seminars (see course contents) devoted to the introduction to the bases of the Latin language (phonetics, morphology and syntax) through the reading of Cicero and Virgil

Assessment methods

The examination consists of an oral interview in which the student’s ability to do the following will be assessed:
read, translate and understand the Latin texts on the syllabus; read the hexameter and the elegiac couplet metrically, and analyse their prosody; answer questions concerning the grammatical structure of the language (phonetics, morphology and basic syntax) based on the texts themselves; answer questions on the history of literature (on individual authors, genres and periods); discuss the essays and topics covered in the monographic course.


Students’ ability to translate a short sentence from an unfamiliar text (without a dictionary, with the lecturer’s assistance for non-basic vocabulary) will also be assessed.

N.B.: It is possible to sustain the institutional component (literary institutions, language, textual criticism and metre + authors) and the special focus component (monographic course and readings) in separate examination sessions, provided that the latter is sustained within two consecutive examination sessions; otherwise, the mark for the institutional component will be forfeited. The institutional component must, in any case, be sustained before the monographic component.

Assessment will be based on the following criteria:
fail: lack of basic linguistic knowledge and inability to produce a correct translation and interpretation of the texts; lack of knowledge of literary history.
pass: possession of basic literary and linguistic knowledge; translation and interpretation of the texts largely correct, but carried out with imprecision and a lack of independence.
Pass mark: possession of intermediate-level literary and linguistic knowledge; translation and interpretation of the texts are entirely correct, but not always precise or independent.
Excellent mark: demonstration of medium-to-high-level literary and linguistic knowledge; translation and interpretation of texts that are not only correct but carried out independently and with precision. Good understanding of prosodic and metrical features.

The assessment of the translation from an unfamiliar text (point V of the syllabus) will influence the overall mark for the oral examination within a range extending from a maximum bonus of 2 marks (independent recognition of vocabulary and sentence structures, full comprehension of the text, production of a translation in correct Italian) to a maximum deduction of 2 marks (inability to navigate the text and failure to comprehend it).

Students with specific learning difficulties or temporary or permanent disabilities: please contact the relevant University office in good time (https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/it): the office will be responsible for proposing any necessary adjustments to the students concerned; these must, however, be submitted for approval by the lecturer at least 15 days in advance, who will assess their suitability, taking into account the course’s learning objectives.

Teaching tools

Pdf files and slides containing texts and / or further bibliography will be uploaded to the course website at the link "Materiali didattici"

Office hours

See the website of Francesco Citti

See the website of Leonardo Galli