Modern humanities

CLAUDIO GIAMMONA

Students will learn the history of the discipline, from antiquity to the modern era, and the methodology of modern critical editions.
They will be able to understand the ways of transmission and reception of Greek-Latin literary works through the centuries, and to evaluate independently the modification these works have been subjected to in the different stages of tradition.
They will be able to make judgements on texts, and contextualize their literary genre and the ways of fruition, communicating these ideas with the appropriate terminology even to a general audience. They will be able to undertake further studies with a high degree of autonomy.
The second part of the course includes a laboratory-type activity: under the teacher's guidance, the students will read a text directly from the manuscript witnesses, applying the theoretical knowledge examined in the first part of the course, and arriving at the proposal of a critical edition specimen .

Students will learn the history of the discipline, from antiquity to the modern era, and the methodology of modern critical editions.
They will be able to understand the ways of transmission and reception of Greek-Latin literary works through the centuries, and to evaluate independently the modification these works have been subjected to in the different stages of tradition.
They will be able to make judgements on texts, and contextualize their literary genre and the ways of fruition, communicating these ideas with the appropriate terminology even to a general audience. They will be able to undertake further studies with a high degree of autonomy.
The second part of the course includes a laboratory-type activity: under the teacher's guidance, the students will read a text directly from the manuscript witnesses, applying the theoretical knowledge examined in the first part of the course, and arriving at the proposal of a critical edition specimen .

A good knowledge of classical latin is reccomended.

This course is structured in two parts:in the first, the teacher will explain the issues related with the composition and the transmission of the classical texts, and with the formation of the modern principles of philological inquiry and textual criticism. We will examine in detail texts related to the issues proposed;in the second, the teacher will guide the class in reading manuscripts and comparing their texts, in order to produce a critical edition.

- L.D. Reynolds, N.G. Wilson, «Scribes and Scholars. A Guide to the Transmission of Greek and Latin Literature», Oxford: Oxford University Press 1991 (chaps. I, III-VI);
- P. Trovato, «Everything you Always wanted to know about Lachmann's method»,Padova, Libreria Universitaria Edizioni, 2014 (introduction + chaps. I-III [pp. 39-178]).
- S. Timpanaro, «The Genesis of Lachmann's Method, transl by G.W. Most, Chicaco & London: Chigago University Press 2006 (chaps. I-VII).
- T. Braccini, «Avventure e disavventure dei classici», Roma: Carocci 2025.
- Further materials will be available on the course's classrom: m2vl5fsp

The lessons will be held in the traditional way; the first part of the course will be held mostly in the frontal form, in the second part the students will be actively involved in the reading and interpretation of the texts.

Attendance is not compulsary: those students who will choose not to attend the lessons are invited to conctat the teacher.

The final examination will verify the knowledge of issues pertaining the trasmission of classical texts, and the acquisition of philological methods, alsto through the critical evaluation of the examples discussed during the course or in the assigned textbooks.
For attending students, the activities carried out during the second part of the course will also be taken into account.

During the interview, the candidate is invited to retrace the development of the discipline, in the way they consider most effective. The teacher intervenes to request clarifications or to guide the discussion, encouraging critical reflection on what has been learned.
The interview for attending students includes a section dedicated to reviewing the work done during the seminar sessions and the individual project prepared for the exam.