90243 - Philology of Modern Italian Literature (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

The course is devoted to texts of Italian Literature from Renaissance to Romanticism, whose characteristics will be presented through the production techniques, history of tradition (manuscript and printed), textual transmission and the constitution of the critical edition. In particular, the course’s aims are: -knowledge of the Lachmann’s method and its concrete applications; -knowledge of the textual bibliography; -knowledge of aspects and problems of authorship philology; -ability to evaluate textual solutions proposed by critical editors; -ability to read manuscripts and antique prints (Incunabula and Cinquecentine); -ability to comment author variants.

Course contents

Giucciardini contra Bembo? The political works making-of.

In his last years, now far from political life, Francesco Guicciardini dedicated himself to the composition and revision of the Storia d'Italia. Among the many "author materials" that document this work, there is a sheet that lists a series of linguistic alternations (such as desiderio or disiderio, denari or danari and so on) on which he cannot decide. These doubts concern essentially oscillations between the fourteenth-century Florentine or "modern" and Florentine aureus: like the articles il, i / el, and, the numeral due / duoi, the imperfect io amava / io amavo. Or between Latin or vulgar forms: as exemplo / es (s) emplo, observare / osservare, prudentia / prudenz(i)a, etc.

These are all documents that make us understand perfectly how many uncertainties the spread of Bembo's grammatical theories had aroused above all in Florence, precisely because - for the linguistic prestige enjoyed by the city - writers tended to conform to the language of the fourteenth-century classics much less than how much the non-Tuscans did. Suffice it to say that in that sheet of notes by Guicciardini the name of Bembo appears five times.

The course aims to address an in-depth investigation into the genetic history of Guicciardini's political production, through a close examination of the available editions but above all of the writer's autographs and leaflets.

Readings/Bibliography

Materials (stats, reproductions, etc.) will be provided during class, available online from december also for non attendants students.
Bibliography:

Francesco Guicciardini, Scritti politici e ricordi, a cura di Roberto Palmarocchi, Bari, Laterza, 1933

Francesco Guicciardini, Opere, I, a cura di Emanuella Scarano, Torino, UTET, 1970

Francesco Guicciardini, Consolatoria, Accusatoria et Defensoria, édition critique et traduction de l’italien par Florence Courriol, Paris, Classiques Garnier, 2013

Teaching methods

Frontal lessons. Lectures and analyses of literary texts.

Assessment methods

he evaluation of the students' competencies and abilities acquired during the course consists of an oral test, i.e. an oral interview which has the aim of evaluating the critical and methodological ability of the students. The students will be invited to discuss the texts on the course programme. The student must demonstrate an appropriate knowledge of the bibliography in the course programme.

Those students who are able to demonstrate a wide and systematic understanding of the issues covered during the lessons, are able to use these critically and who master the field-specific language of the discipline will be given a mark of excellence.

Those students who demonstrate a mnemonic knowledge of the subject with a more superficial analytical ability and ability to synthesize, a correct command of the language but not always appropriate, will be given a ‘fair' mark.

A superficial knowledge and understanding of the material, a scarce analytical and expressive ability that is not always appropriate will be rewarded with a pass mark or just above a pass mark.

Students who demonstrate gaps in their knowledge of the subject matter, inappropriate language use, lack of familiarity with the literature in the programme bibliography will not be given a pass mark.

Office hours

See the website of Leonardo Quaquarelli