LATIN PALAEOGRAPHY
The course is aimed at giving each student a thorough understanding of the historical development of the Latin writing as well as an ability to read and comment, making use of the specific palaeographic terminology, on a given example of writing.
Over more than two thousand years, from the 7th c. BC to the end of the Middle Ages, Latin writing has experienced profound formal changes, through different ages and different geographical areas in which it was used. The course aims at offering an overlook of this process,
fundamental and propedeutical to the approach to any field of the history of Western civilization. Each lecture is followed by practical reading exercises. During the course, one or more visits will be organized to archives or historical libraries in Chieti or in its surroundings, to stimulate a direct interaction with original manuscripts, codices as well as documents.
After a brief methodological introduction, we'll analyze the scripts from archaic Rome to Late Antiquity (epigraphic Capital, book Capital, Old and New Cursive, early Minuscule, Uncial, Half-Uncial), the Early Middle Ages (Insular, Merovingic, Visigothic, Beneventan and Northern-Italian scripts) and Central and Late Middle Ages (Caroline, Gothic, Chancery hands, mercantesca). Finally, we'll talk about Humanistic scripts (15th century book and chancery hands).
The following handbook:
A. PETRUCCI, Breve storia della scrittura latina, Roma, Bagatto Libri, 1989.
Two papers to be chosen among the following:
A. PETRUCCI, La paleografia latina in Italia dalla scuola positiva al secondo dopoguerra, in Un secolo di paleografia e diplomatica (1887-1986), a c. di A. Petrucci e A. Pratesi, Roma, Gela editrice, 1988, pp. 21-35;
P. SUPINO MARTINI, La paleografia latina in Italia da Giorgio Cencetti ai giorni nostri, ibid., pp. 37-80.
P. SUPINO MARTINI, Per lo studio delle scritture altomedievali italiane: la collezione canonica chietina (Vat. Reg. lat. 1997), in «Scrittura e civiltà», 7 (1983), p. 133-154;
A. PETRUCCI, Storia e geografia delle culture scritte (dal secolo XI al secolo XVII), in Letteratura Italiana. Storia e geografia, II, L'età moderna, Torino, Einaudi 1988, pp. 1194-1292 (fino a p. 1255).
S. ZAMPONI, Elisione e sovrapposizione nella “littera textualis”, in «Scrittura e civiltà», 12, 1988, pp. 135-176.
T. DE ROBERTIS, La scrittura romana, in Tagung des Comité International de Paléographie Latine, (Enghien-les-Bains, 19-20 septembre 2003),
«Archiv für Diplomatik», 50, 2004, pp. 221-246;
S. ZAMPONI, La scrittura umanistica, «Archiv für Diplomatik», 50 (2004), pp. 467-504.
C. TEDESCHI, Itinerario paleografico abruzzese, in Illuminare l'Abruzzo, Pescara, Carsa, 2012, pp. 9-25.
L. MIGLIO - C. TEDESCHI, Echi romaneschi, "Scripta", 6 (2013), pp. 95-113.
C. TEDESCHI, Un centro scrittorio nell'Abruzzo franco. Il ms. Aug. perg. 229 e il monastero di S. Stefano in Lucana, in «Bullettino dell'Istituto storico italiano per il Medioevo», 106 (2014), pp. 1-23.
Frontal lectures, visits to sites of interest, such as archives or historic libraries, seminars aimed at deepening specific topics.
After being asked to read and comment on two palaeographic plates, the student will have an oral text on one or more topics about the history of Latin writing from Antiquity to the Renaissance.
Regular class attendance is very important