OVERVIEW

The course offers an overview of some crucial Byzantine literary texts, from scratch to the top: students start reading a manuscript, understanding some layers of the text (in terms of lexicon, style, variant readings, literary imitation, variatio and historical context) and will be guided towards 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 aims, see the previous item.

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 accurately translate the proposed texts with awareness of the multiple meanings;

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

(c) to read the manuscripts which 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/article, drawing up a reasoned report and critical assessment of it.

PREREQUISITES

A good knowledge of ancient Greek is necessary to take the course.

TEACHING METHODS

Webconference lessons: lectures via streaming on MicrosoftTeams.

Lessons with Power Point/pdf presentations and Wooclap interactions; laboratory of translation via online lexica (GI, LSJ, LBG and so on).

Attending the lessons is strongly recommended.

It is requested to subscribe on Aulaweb as well, in order to get information, didactic material, notices, bibliography and so on.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

Diplomacy and Byzantine Literature in the 10th century”

Byzantine diplomacy allowed the empire of Constantinople to survive more than a thousand years (330-1453 AD) and literature in Greek played a vital role in diplomatic relations, especially during the empire of Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos (945-953). The course offers an introduction to the literary relevance of diplomacy and, vice versa, an overview of the diplomatic role played by literature between the 4th and the 10th centuries. Some updated bibliography and a general reconsideration of the age of the Macedonian dynasty lead towards a reassessment of ancient Greek literature in Byzantium as well as of the evolutions of the related literary genres.

A series of seminars in Italian by young researchers in Byzantine Studies, together with prof. Pia Carolla, will include the following:

Francesco Monticini, La suggestione del doppio: Sinesio di Cirene (V sec.) e il fantomatico Evagrio [The double and its suggestion: Synesius of Cyrene (5th c.) and the phantom of Evagrius].

Omar Coloru, Duelli diplomatici tra mito e storia: il trattato di pace tra Teodosio II e Bahram V (422 d.C.) [Diplomatic confrontations between myth and history: the peace-treaty of Theodosius II and Bahram V (422 AD)].

Agnese Fontana, Ambasciatori di Giustiniano al re degli “Indiani” in Giovanni Malalas: percezione e descrizione dell’”altro” nel resoconto di una missione diplomatica [Ambassadors of Justinian to the king of the “Indians” in John Malalas: perception and description of the ‘Other’ in a diplomatic report].

Andrea Maurizio Martolini, La storia perduta di Pietro Patrizio [The lost history by Peter the Patrician].

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

A selection of the relevant Greek passages from different authors the necessary bibliography and references will be available in pdf or in OpenAccess (see Aulaweb).

Bibliography for students taking the course for 6 cfu: see below (a)+(b)+(c).

(a) Reference works (selected pages):

Excerpta historica quae Constantini VII Porphyrogeniti dicuntur. Vol. I. De legationibus Romanorum ad gentes, ed. P. Carolla (Bibliotheca Scriptorum Graecorum et Latinorum Teubneriana) Berlin-Boston Walter de Gruyter (forthcoming at 'Bibliotheca Teubneriana').

Excerpta de Legationibus edidit C. de Boor, pars I: Excerpta de legationibus Romanorum ad Gentes. Pars II: Excerpta de legationibus gentium ad Romanos, Berlin Weidmann 1903.

(b) Bibliography:

L. R. Cresci, Procopio negli Excerpta de Legationibus: alcune osservazioni, in “Νέα Ῥώμη” XIV (2017), pp. 51-80.

P. Carolla, La Siria e Costantinopoli nei cosiddetti Excerpta Constantiniana de legationibus Romanorum, in S. Ronchey, Fr. Monticini (a cura di), Bisanzio nello spazio e nel tempo. Costantinopoli, la Siria, Atti della XIV giornata di studi dell’AISB (Associazione Italiana Studi Bizantini), Roma Pontificio Istituto Orientale 10-11 novembre 2017, Roma 2019, pp. 219-236

P. Magdalino, Knowledge in Authority and Authorised History: the Imperial Intellectual Programme of Leo VI and Constantine VII, in Authority in Byzantium, ed. Pamela Armstrong, Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate 2013, pp. 187-209.

P. Odorico, Du premier humanisme à l’encyclopédisme: une construction à revoir, in Autour du Premier humanisme byzantin & des Cinq études sur le Xie siècle, quarante ans après Paul Lemerle, édité par B. Flusin – J.-Cl. Cheynet, Paris 2017 (Collège de France – CNRS, Centre de Recherche d’Histoire et Civilisation de Byzance, Travaux et mémoires, 21/2), pp. 23-42.

A. Németh, The Excerpta Constantiniana and the Byzantine Appropriation of the Past, Cambridge 2018 (selected pages).

(c) Summary of Byzantine literature (optional for students who have already passed Byzantine philology):

A. KAMBYLIS, Compendio della letteratura bizantina, in H.-G. NESSELRATH, Introduzione alla filologia greca, trad. it., Roma, Salerno Editrice, 2004, pp. 446-478

Students who want to choose a wholly English bibliography are kindly requested to contact the professor as soon as possible via email (pia.carolla@unige.it).

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

Exam Board

PIA CAROLLA (President)

AGNESE FONTANA

FRANCESCA GAZZANO (Substitute)

LESSONS

LESSONS START

October 5th 2020

Class schedule

BYZANTINE LITERATURE

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

Oral exam

ASSESSMENT METHODS

Oral exam: students will be asked to read, translate and provide a historical, literary, philological and linguistic commentary of the 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 reading of the manuscript to the elaboration of a commentary.
Before the oral exam, students will email (or hand over) a report on a critical reading/article/contribution (to be chosen by the student in a list); the aim is to assess their level of proficiency in text analysis and synthesis. The report has to be written in rather accurate Italian (B1 level) and to summarize the essential contents of the reading. 'Excellence' requirements for the written test are: writing an effective, reasonable report on the argumentation, by underlining its strengths and weaknesses as well.

Minimum 'pass' requirements for the oral exam are: (i) being able to read the manuscript analyzed in class, (ii) being able to translate and (iii) to comment texts by outlining the major linguistic, literary and philological features of such texts.

'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.

Exam schedule

FURTHER INFORMATION

Please contact the professor for any further information in English.