Unit HISTORY OF WRITTEN CULTURE
- Course
- Cultural heritage
- Study-unit Code
- A000114
- Curriculum
- In all curricula
- Teacher
- Antonio Ciaralli
- Teachers
-
- Antonio Ciaralli
- Hours
- 72 ore - Antonio Ciaralli
- CFU
- 6
- Course Regulation
- Coorte 2024
- Offered
- 2024/25
- Learning activities
- Caratterizzante
- Area
- Discipline relative ai beni culturali
- Academic discipline
- M-STO/09
- Type of study-unit
- Opzionale (Optional)
- Type of learning activities
- Attività formativa monodisciplinare
- Language of instruction
- Italian with romanesque accent.
- Contents
- Paleography study the ancient writings. During the course, we will study the history of Latin writing. By Latin writing we mean writing based on the Latin alphabet, the one that we still use today, regardless of the language of which the writing from time to time was or is a graphic expression. Therefore Latin paleography deals with texts in Latin, in Italian or French vernacular, in Old German or in Anglo-Saxon, as long as they are physically written in the Latin alphabet.
Strictly speaking,
1. it studies manual writing in its historical development; and consists in the critical identification of the characteritics of each writing, in its date in time and space, in its reading or at least deciphering. For this purpose it is essential to become familiar with the word abbreviation system, perigraphic and punctuation signs (numeral digits, orthographic and critical signs).
2. Understood in its broadest sense, paleography has the task of
2.1 dating the manuscripts,
2.2 locate them,
2.3 draw from their external appearance all the useful elements for the study of their content and, in general, for the history of the societies that produce them.
3. It therefore takes into consideration
3.1 writing materials and tools used for writing;
3.2. preparing the material to receive writing;
3.3 the form and composition of the manuscript;
3.4. the forms of mise en texte and mise en page.
Nevertheless, the phenomenon “writing” is broader and must be studied in itself, independently. We must certainly see the way of tracing letters, but also the processes that lead to the change over time and the function that writing played in societies. Othewise said, the act of writing (both in its technique and in its take part in the spiritual and practical life of individuals and societies) and its graphic result throughout history and in its relationships with historically determined societies. - Reference texts
- 1. A. Petrucci, Prima lezione di paleografia, Roma Bari, Laterza, 2002
2. A. Petrucci, Breve storia della scrittura latina (ed. distribuita dal docente)
3. G. Cencetti, Lineamenti di storia della scrittura latina, Seconda edizione, a c. di G. Guerrini Ferri, Bologna, Pàtron, 1997 limitatamente ai capitoli:
-Terminologia e principi generali
- La scrittura latina nell’età romana
- Il particolarismo della scrittura latina nell’alto medioevo
- L’unità scrittoria carolino-gotica
- Le scritture umanistiche e le scritture moderne
Students with handicap certificates will be able to take advantage of the study limited at:
G. Battelli, Paleografia, Città del Vaticano, Biblioteca apostolica vaticana, 1997.
Students with certified extra-university constraints that prevent regular attendance must add the following volume to the texts listed:
A. Petrucci, La letteratura italiana: una storia attraverso la scrittura, Roma, Carocci, 2017. Without prejudice to all the requirements valid for those attending. - Educational objectives
- Students will learn to read a manuscript; identify its formal characteristics; understand its internal order; discriminate their functions. Furthermore, he/she will have to know the history of handwriting from the VII b.C to XVI a.C.; knowing how to arrange them in the historical order that belongs to them; exercise his/her judgment on quality. The underlying objective, beyond the required notional system, is, however, to refine he/she spirit and exercise of criticism (history, textuality, analisys).
- Prerequisites
- Palaeography imposes an hard body of knowledge: first of all it is advisable to have notions of history for the entire chronological period considered (from 7th b.C. to 16th centuries of C.E.); a basic knowledge of the Latin language is also useful (although not strictly necessary) (for those who do not have it, this can be remedied by increasing the part in the vernacular).
- Teaching methods
- To achieve the expected purpose and acquire the required skills, a reading and interpretation exercises consistently accompany the theoretical part exposed through frontal lessons. These exercises will be carried out on reproductions of manuscripts that will be provided from time to time by the teacher: students will therefore have to equip themselves with special devices capable of reading common digital image formats (jpeg; pdf). Compatibly with the availability of conservation bodies, study visits to the library will also be possible.
- Other information
- For copyright act, images of manuscripts used in lessons cannot be shared on the university's e-learning platforms. It is not possible to simplify the course contents for disabled people.
- Learning verification modality
- The assessment of the skills achieved will occur through an oral examination which involves the reading and detailed analysis of one or more pages of manuscripts. Examples deal with the whole chronological period involved in the history of Latin script, i.d. from VII century b.C. to XVI a.C., in Latin and vernaculars. The pourpose of reading is to understand the forms of manuscript and writing; it will allow students to identify the characteristic elements, the main graphic facts, necessary for the correct definition of the graphic type. It will be essential for the student to demonstrate his/her ability in dating (i.e. the relative chronology of the manuscript) and to correctly interpret it in contest of history of writing. The judgment on the student's test is founded on correct knowledge of the full program, his/her ability in the critical exercise, the solidity of the arguments, the logic of the answers made, the ownership of the techinical language, the ability in analyze and in synthesize. Particularly appreciated is all the relationships and connections that he/she will be able to create between cultural facts and graphic facts in their mutual interchange. A standard duration of the exam cannot be foreseen, because everything depends on reading ability and analytical readiness. As a general and generic indication starting from an half hour to one hour.
- Extended program
- Some basic notions will be exposed relating to a definition of the discipline and its objects (writing, understood as the "act of writing"), providing information on aspects and phenomena characteristic of writing activity: on how it was formed and developed in the Roman world before, then in Western Europe. The materials and tools used for writing; the form and structure of the book; it will necessary to learn the method of paleography: which are its research and analysis tools its parameters of interpretation of graphic facts. All this explains how the paleographic research method can be applied to the history of Latin writing, marked according to traditional periodization.
Part I. Theory
A. Palaeography
A1. What it is? Who needs it? How to study it?
A2. Some subsidies
B. Writing
B1. Spaces and tools
B2. Places
B3. Heroes
B4. Manners
B5. Functions
C. Vocabulary
C1. Terms to describe
C2. Terms to qualify
Part II. Training
A. Read
B. Date and locate
C. To describe
Part III. History
A. Current script
A1. From origins to III cent. b.C.
A2 III-IV century
A3. V-X cent.
A4. XI-XII cent.
A5. XIII cent.
A6. XIV-XVI cent.
B. Writing in books
B1. Roman and Medieval times
B1a. Capital
B2a. Uncial
B1b. The minuscule
B2. The Roman heritage
B2a. Great Britain
B2b. Spain
B2c. French kingdom
B2d. Italy
B2d-I. North and Central Italy
B2d-II. South Italy
B3. The caroline minuscule
B4. The caroline’s dominion
B5. The new minuscule
B6. Calligraphic types of the common script
B6a. Chancery hands
B6b. Mercantile hands
C. Epigraphy
C1. Ancient epigraphic writings
C2. Modern epigraphic writings
C3. Old fashoned epigraphy
C4. Epigraphy today - Obiettivi Agenda 2030 per lo sviluppo sostenibile
- Istruzione di qualità; Lavoro dignitoso e crescita economica; Ridurre le disuguaglianze