OVERVIEW

Major texts of byzantine literature will be read: students will start from manuscripts and they will be guided to the elaboration of a philological literary commentary.

A good knowledge of ancient Greek is required.

AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

The educational objectives aim at the acquisition of the following knowledges, skills and abilities: - know through direct reading of the texts the main genres of the Byzantine literature through their diachronic development and the contribution of each author; - lead a philological, linguistic, stylistic and historical-literary exegesis of the texts belonging to the Byzantine literary culture; - contextualize the texts both in their relationship with the Attic and Christian cultural heritage, and in the specific literary and cultural configuration of the Greek Middle Ages; - identify the role of individual texts and authors in the Nachleben of literary and ideological themes.

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

For the detailed training objectives see the training objectives

Learning outcomes

It is expected that, at the end of teaching attendance and the study of the related program, students will be able:

(a) to read correctly and translate the proposed texts with precision and awareness;

(b) to connect the texts to the characters of the literary genre they belong to;

(c) to read the manuscripts that hand down the texts, read the critical apparatus correctly, follow the path that leads from the witnesses to the edition, the translation and the comment;

(d) to critically address the reading of a critical essay, drawing up a reasoned assessment of it.

TEACHING METHODS

Frontal lecture and laboratory.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

The emperors and the others: byzantine supreme power and responsibility (4th-10th centuries).
An overview about imperial power and language(s) from Constantine I the Great to Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos.

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

A selection of the relevant Greek passages from Eusebius, Procopius and Constantinus VII will be provided in pdf (see AulaWeb).

Eusebius Caesariensis, Vita Constantini, Über das Leben des Kaisers Konstantin, hrsg. von F. Winkelmann, Berlin 1975 (Die griechischen christlichen Schriftsteller). Eusèbe de Césarée, Vie de Constantin, texte critique F. Winkelmann, introduction et notes Luce Pietri, traduction Marie-Joseph Rondeau, Paris : Les Éditions du Cerf, 2013 (Sources Chrétiennes 559). Eusebio di Cesarea, Vita di Costantino, ed. Laura Franco, Milano: Bur 2013.

Procopius Caesariensis, de Aedificiis, ed. J. Haury, addenda et corrigenda adiecit G. Wirth, Monachii-Lipsiae: Saur, 20012 (Bibliotheca Teubneriana). Procopio di Cesarea, Santa Sofia di Costantinopoli. Un tempio di luce (De Aedificiis I 1, 1-78), a cura di P. Cesaretti-M.L. Fobelli, Milano: Jaca Book 2011, pp. 140-149. Procopio di Cesarea, Carte segrete, traduzione di Lia Raffaella Cresci Sacchini, Milano: Garzanti 20084 (I grandi libri Garzanti).
Av. Cameron, Procopius and the Sixth Century, London-New York: Routledge, 1985, pp. 83-112.
Excerpta historica quae Constantini VII Porphyrogeniti dicuntur. Vol. I. De legationibus Romanorum ad gentes, ed. P. Carolla, Berlin-Boston: Walter de Gruyter, (forthcoming at Bibliotheca Teubneriana).
Lia Raffaella Cresci, Exempla storici greci negli encomi e nella storiografia bizantini del XII secolo, Rhetorica: A Journal of the History of Rhetoric 22 (2004), pp. 115-145.
Paul Magdalino, Knowledge in Authority and Authorised History: the Imperial Intellectual Programme of Leo VI and Constantine VII, in Pamela Armstrong (ed.), Authority in Byzantium, Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate 2013, pp. 187-209.

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

Exam Board

PIA CAROLLA (President)

SERENA PERRONE (President)

FRANCESCA GAZZANO

VALTER LAPINI

LARA PAGANI

LESSONS

LESSONS START

September 16, 2019

Class schedule

BYZANTINE LITERATURE

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

Oral exam

ASSESSMENT METHODS

Oral test: students will be asked to read, translate and provide a historical, literary, philological, linguistic commentaries of texts analyzed during the course, in order to assess their knowledge of the language, literary genre and tradition of each text.
Students will have to present the laboratory activity conducted on the text, from the manuscript to the elaboration of a commentary.
Preliminarly to the oral exam, students will email (or hand over) a report on a critical reading suggested by the professor; the aim is to assess their level of proficiency in text analysis and synthesis.

Minimum 'pass' requirements are: (a) being able to read the manuscript analyzed in class, (b) being able to translate and to comment texts by outlining the major linguistic, literary and philological features of such texts. Minimum 'pass' requirements for the preliminary written test are: ability to present the major contents of the critical text and to write rather accurate Italian (B1 level).

'Excellence' requirements are: being able to confidently read manuscripts, to translate and comment texts accurately by making connections with Byzantine literary context; being able to point out accurately all aspects of texts: linguistic, historical, literary and philological aspects. 'Excellence' requirements for the written test are: writing an effective, well-argumented report on the critical text, by underlining its strengths and weaknesses.

Exam schedule