04358 - Latin Palaeography and Diplomatics

Learning outcomes

The course has as its objective the knowledge of book and documentary writing in the Latin alphabet and of documentary typologies between the Middle Ages and the early modern age. At the end of the course the student is able to orient himself in the dating and evaluation of the areas of production of manuscripts in Latin and in the vernacular, he can read and recognize the main book and documentary writings, distinguish document types and know the editing methods typical of diplomatics. He knows how to orient himself in bibliographic tools and research methods.

Course contents

This course aims to provide an in-depth understanding of the content and methodological tools of both Latin Palaeography and Diplomatics. There is a functional connection between these two disciplines, as they partially share the same objects of study and serve as primary gateways to the cultural and social history of the Roman world and medieval and early modern Europe. One such connection lies in the symbolic aspects that the historical societies of the Romanized West attributed to writing, both as the act of writing and as the result of that act. This course will focus on two classes of written testimonies in which this symbolic enhancement is most apparent and amenable to coherent historical reconstruction: the manuscripts that provide the material form for the biblical text, for the Latin Palaeography component of the course; and "public" documents, for the Diplomatics component.

Course Structure:

The course is divided into two parts:

1. Latin Palaeography:
The course will cover the development of Latin writing (and the related metamorphoses of the book's material structure) through the lens of biblical manuscripts. The journey will span from the eastern shores of the Mediterranean in Late Antiquity to medieval Europe; from the earliest clandestine attempts to compile the Christian Bible in book form during the 3rd and 4th centuries—valuable documents from the initial phase of Christianity's expansion between East and West—to Gutenberg's printing press in Mainz, at the heart of an Europe that, thanks to his forty-two-line Bible, was closing the Middle Ages and entering the modern era. Biblical manuscripts, within the rich and complex space between these two extremes, served as true "laboratories": experimental and avant-garde spaces where, on the one hand, the scripts (in lowercase) that transmitted the Scriptures (in uppercase, this time) were forged or monumentalized, and on the other, the possibilities offered by the codex book were explored to reveal, even when closed, the sacred content it housed.

In particular, the course will address all (or at least some) of the following thematic areas and case studies:

– “Colligite fragmenta”: Early Christian book-making, from volumen to codex; – The Bible meets Power: The Constantinian Bibles; – The Emergence of the Latin Bible: The Codex Bobiensis, from North Africa to Bobbio via Ireland; – At the Dawn of Illustration in the Latin Bible: The so-called Itala of Quedlinburg; – The Bible as a Luxury Object: Purple Gospels between East and West; – Greek Bible and Latin Bible in Parallel: Bilingual and Digraphic Codices; – The Bible in Barbarian Europe: A tool of synthesis against disintegrative forces; – The Codex Amiatinus from Rome to England and Back: A source for the Christianization of the British Isles; – The Bible in the Carolingian Era: The first return to unity in Alcuin's imperial Bibles; – The Bible of the Church of Rome as Universal Church:The Atlantic or "Gregorian" Bibles; – The “Scientific” Bible of the 13th Century: The Biblia Parisiensis in the Theological Studium of Île de France; – The Laity and the Bible: Vernacular Bible manuscripts; – The Bible of the Learned: Biblical manuscripts in humanist libraries and the first printed editions between the 15th and 16th centuries.

 

2. Diplomatics:

Diplomatics provides the most refined repertoire of methodological tools for verifying the authenticity of documents through the study of their forms, that is, their extrinsic and intrinsic characteristics. This type of investigation, therefore, primarily aims to connect these forms and signs (whether physical, graphic, or textual) to the genetic process of any document, retracing its stages of development. In this way, not only does diplomatics become direct historical research, but it also reconstructs the specific history of the social conventions that, over the centuries, have established the relationship between these signs (primarily writing) and certain specific symbolic and metacommunicative functions to manifest the authenticity and genuineness of the tablets, papyri, parchments, and papers that displayed them. While these considerations apply to any and all documents, they are especially pertinent to public documents (or, more precisely, what diplomatics refers to as public documents) of Late Antiquity and the Latin Middle Ages: these documents were, above all, the instruments through which chancery offices developed these symbolic functions, shaping the material (writings, special signs, and concrete objects) they had at their disposal.

To this end, the lectures will focus on at least some of the following topics:

– Jean Mabillon and the birth of diplomatics as the critical study of legal documents; – Defining a document, between genesis and function; – The document as a meeting point of legality and writing; – Law, legal practice, and history; – The document as a source of law in the Roman world (from the Laws of the Twelve Tables to Late Antique codifications); – Dispositive function and probative function in Roman and medieval documents; – Action and documentation in the Middle Ages: public and private documents; – The “authors” of medieval documentation: chanceries, tabelliones, judges, and notaries; – The stages of drafting the public document; – The extrinsic characteristics of the public document: writing materials, script, special signs, seals, and chancery notes; – The intrinsic characteristics of the public document: fractures and continuities in the reflection of the imperial document (4th-10th centuries) and the papal document (10th-14th centuries); – Time and its calculation in medieval documents (and in the medieval world); – From early medieval formularies to the artes notariae of late medieval Italy; – Documents in books, between function and authenticity: the case of papal registers; – The critical edition of documents according to current scholarly standards.

Readings/Bibliography

1. Latin Palaeography:

Forme e modelli della tradizione manoscritta della Bibbia, a cura di P. Cherubini, prefazione di C. M. Martini, introduzione di A. Pratesi, Città del Vaticano: Scuola Vaticana di Paleografia, Diplomatica e Archivistica, 2005 (Littera Antiqua, 13) [selected chapters]

** Non-attending students will add a text of choice from the following:

– A. Bartoli Langeli, Tra Alcuino e Gigliola Cinquetti. Discorsi di Paleografia, Padova: Libreriauniversitaria.it Edizioni, 2020

– G. Cavallo, Scrivere e leggere nella città antica, Roma: Carocci Editore, 2019 (Frecce, 285), capp. 3, 4

– A. Petrucci, Lezioni Spoletine, Spoleto: Fondazione «Centro italiano di studi sull’alto medioevo», 2021 (Lezioni Spoletine, 3)

2. Diplomatics:

– A. Pratesi, Genesi e forme del documento medievale, Roma: Jouvence, 1999 (Guide, 3)

– G. Nicolaj, Lineamenti di diplomatica generale, in «Scrineum — Rivista», 1 (2003), pp. 5-112

** Non-attending students will add a text of choice from the following:

– A. Petrucci, C. Romeo, Scriptores in urbibus. Alfabetismo e cultura scritta nell’Italia medievale, Bologna: Il Mulino, 1992 (Il Mulino Ricerca)

– A. Bartoli Langeli, Notai. Scrivere documenti nell’Italia medievale, Roma: Viella Libreria Editrice, 2006 (I libri di Viella, 56)

– T. Frenz, I documenti pontifici nel Medioevo e nell’età moderna, Città del Vaticano: Scuola Vaticana di Paleografia, Diplomatica e Archivistica, 2008 [seconda edizione] (Littera Antiqua, 6)

– P. Cammarosano, Italia medievale. Struttura e geografia delle fonti scritte, Torino: La Nuova Italia Scientifica, 1995 [settima e ultima ristampa: Roma, Carocci Editore, 2016 (Aulamagna)]

– A. Petrucci, Scrittura, documentazione, memoria. Dieci scritti e un inedito (1963-2009). Con una premessa di A. Bartoli Langeli, Roma, 2019

As preliminary preparation on the topics of anthropology and sociology of writing, reading a text of choice from the following is warmly recommended:

– G. R. Cardona, Antropologia della scrittura, Torino: Loerscher editore, 1981 (Loescher Università. Monografie)

– A. Petrucci, La scrittura: ideologia e rappresentazione, Torino: Giulio Einaudi Editore, 1986 () [ristampa con introduzione di N. Barker, Roma, LUISS University Press, 2021 (Kairós)]

– H. J. Martin, Storia e potere della scrittura, Roma-Bari: Editori Laterza, 1990 (Storia e società)

– J. Assmann, Scrittura, ricordo e identità politica nelle grandi civiltà, Torino: Giulio Einaudi Editore, 1992 (Biblioteca Einaudi, 2)

– A. Petrucci, Le scritture ultime. Ideologia della morte e strategie dello scrivere nella tradizione occidentale, Torino: Giulio Einaudi Editore, 1995 (Saggi, 798)

– M. Bettini, Roma, città della parola. Oralità Memoria Diritto Religione Poesia, Torino: Giulio Einaudi Editore, 2022 (Saggi, 1025)

– L. Godart, I custodi della memoria. Lo scriba tra Mesopotamia, Egitto ed Egeo, Torino: Giulio Einaudi Editore, 2023 (Saggi, 1040)

Teaching methods

Frontal lessons; educational visit in Archives and Libraries; practice sessions: various types of handwritten sources from the 4th to the 15th century CE will be explored and interpreted.

Further study materials and additional resources can be accessed on the course's Virtual page, with the password available upon request from the teacher.

** For regularly attending students: The teacher may assign a project, which will be the initial topic discussed during the exam.

Assessment methods

Class attendance is recommended to achieve a good result. All those who cannot attend the course for demonstrable reasons of work are required to agree their syllabus in advance during the lecturer’s office hours.

The exam will be an oral discussion where students can choose a topic or discuss an assigned research project from class. Evaluation will consider how well students know and understand the topics covered in lectures and the recommended readings, their ability to communicate effectively using the specialized language of the discipline, their skills in summarizing and analyzing themes and concepts, and their overall critical, methodological, and interpretative abilities.

Any gaps in knowledge, the use of inappropriate language, or a lack of engagement with the course materials will be assessed negatively.

Teaching tools

Practical activities:

- Annotated projection of various types of handwritten sources spanning from the 4th to the 15th century CE.

- Commented projection of specimens extracted from biblical manuscripts of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages;

- Commented projection of late antique or medieval legal documents (with particular attention to public documents, placita and sentences, fiscal, and judicial documents) related to the specific case studies presented.

In the 'Virtual teaching resources' section - which can be accessed with a password that the teacher will communicate at the beginning of the lessons - the basic teaching material will be available from the start of the course (exemplary and in-depth Keynotes, links to videos and handouts provided by the teacher).

Please note that initiatives (educational visits, seminars, conferences, book presentations...) indicated and/or organized by the teacher are to be considered supplementary to the teaching and will be recognized during the exam.

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All student who are affected by learning disability (DSA) and in need of special strategies to compensate it, are kindly requested to contact Prof. Bassetti, in order to be referred to the colleagues in charge and get proper advice and instructions.

https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en/for-students

Office hours

See the website of Massimiliano Bassetti