04358 - Latin Palaeography and Diplomatics

Learning outcomes

The course aims at the knowledge of the Mediaeval book and cursive latin writing as well of the document typologies between Middle and early Modern Ages. At the end of the course the student acquires a critical knowledge of latin and vernacular manuscript productions, is able to distinguish and date the most important book and cursive writings, knows the principles of the diplomatic edition of Mediaeval documents and the specific bibliography. He is also able to manage the research tools.

Course contents

The course includes alternating lessons of Paleography and Diplomatic

Topics of course:

Palaeography: historical and methodological introduction; the functional paleographic; morphologic relationship between calligraphy and cursive writing with deep insights into the abbreviation systems used in the Middle and the early Modern ages. It will not also overlooked the development of the Western latin writing (between the Carolingian age and early Modern age), even though this matter will be traeted more concisely.

Diplomatic: historical and methodological introduction; public and private documents; functions and typologies of documents in the pubblic and private production domains; chronology; charta, breve and instrumentum between Early and Middle Ages; documents tradition: originals, copies, falses; edition of documents; bibliographic tools.

Practical lessons will be dedicated to reading of facsimiles of manuscripts and to reading and transcription of facsimiles of Medieval documents.

Although no specific prerequisites are required for course attendance, knowledge of Latin is strongly recommended.

Readings/Bibliography

1. One handbook at choice among the followin ones:

A. Petrucci, Breve storia della scrittura latina, Roma, Bagatto Libri, 1989.

B. Bischoff, Paleografia latina. Antichità e Medioevo, a c. di G. Mantovani e S. Zamponi, Padova, Antenore, 1992.

G. Cencetti, Lineamenti di storia della scrittura latina, ristampa a c. di G. Guerrini Ferri, Bologna, Pàtron Editore, 1997.

P. Cherubini - A. Pratesi, Paleografia latina. L'avventura grafica del mondo occidentale, Città del Vaticano, Scuola Vaticana di Paleografia, Diplomatica e Archivistica, 2010 (Littera antiqua, 16).

P. Cherubini, La scrittura latina: storia, forme, usi, Roma, Carocci, 2019

2. C. PAOLI, Diplomatica, ed. aggiornata da C. Bascapè, Firenze, Le Lettere, 1942, e successive edizioni.

3. A. PRATESI, Una questione di metodo: l’edizione delle fonti documentarie, «Rassegna degli Archivi di Stato», 17 (sett.-dic. 1957), pp. 312-333.

G. Tognetti, Criteri per la trascrizione di testi medievali latini e italiani, Roma, s.e., 1982 (pp. 65) < http://archivi.beniculturali.it/dga/uploads/documents/Quaderni/Quaderno_51.pdf >

4. Facsimiles of manuscripts and medieval documents read at lesson.

Students non attending to the lectures are required to read the texts listed in the bibliography and are invited to contact the teacher to agree an alternative work program for the examination

Teaching methods

Lessons and educational visit in Archiv and Libraries.

Assessment methods

The exam will include a written transcript of a manuscript facsimile (1 leaf) and one a document facsimile, that will be assigned at the end of the course. This text will be evaluated with the oral examination of the acquired knowledge on the topics discussed in the lesson and on the bibliography suggested. The oral exam aims at assessing the critical knowledge of the recommended readings as well as of the topics discussed during the lessons.Part of the exam will focus on reading and discussing facsimiles of manuscripts and documents in order to verify the student's ability in the understanding and dating Mediaeval manuscripts and documents. It will be evaluated very positive or positive the student's ability to demonstrate the acquired knowledge in a personal and critical way, using an appropriate language.More than sufficient will be evaluated the mnemonic knowledge, expressed with conciveness, in a correct language but not very appropriate. Sufficient will be evaluated the basic knowledge expressed with inappropriate language. Insufficient will be evaluated the incomplete knowledge of the readings, the incorrect and inappropriate language, the inability to manage bibliographies and texts analized during the lessons

Teaching tools

Power point and network access for the the visit of the most important specific web sites devoted to the topics discussed in the lessons.

Office hours

See the website of Paola Degni