LEARNING OUTCOMES

The Latin literature course (I year) aims to give students a good knowledge of the history of Latin literature from the archaic period to the 5th century AD by directly reading texts; knowledge of the themes of Latin literature and of the fundamental range of literary genres with their formal characteristics and content, together with the capacity to move between genres applying suitable interpretation techniques; the capacity to identify the elements of continuity and innovation in Roman literature with respect to the great Greek experience that preceded it; the capacity to analyse texts in the language proposed during the course and, in general, any text in Latin, and the practical knowledge of metrics.

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

The Latin literature course (I year) has the following objectives:

• to give students a good knowledge of the history of Latin literature in its diachronic evolution from the archaic period to the 5th century AD by directly reading texts;
• to give students knowledge of the themes of Latin literature and the fundamental range of literary genres with their formal characteristics and content; capacity to move between genres applying suitable interpretation techniques;
• to give students knowledge and understanding of the evolution of the Latin language over about eight centuries of history (with particular attention to the awareness of various registers and levels of the language, the selection of which is tied naturally to the literary genre);
• to give students the capacity to identify elements of continuity and innovation in Latin literature with respect to the great Greek experience that preceded it;
• to give students understanding of and capacity to analyse the texts proposed during the course and, in general, any text in Latin;
• mastery of Latin reading and consequently excellent knowledge of prosody and metrics.

To this end a large selection of texts in Latin will be commented. Various other texts will be added which must be read by students. A part of the course will be devoted to the fundamental notions of prosody and metric (hexameter and pentameter) and to practical exercises of metric reading.

PREREQUISITES

A solid knowledge of the Latin language is required and, for those students who have not already taken the test in the Access test, as is the case for classicists, it is required to pass a Preliminary written Translation Test from the Latin (information on this should be requested to Prof. Lara Nicolini, who is in charge of the test).

Please note that to facilitate the preparation of solid grammatical bases and for the preparation of the Preliminary written Translation Test, first and second semester Latin lessons for beginners, intermediate Latin lessons and advanced Latin lessons, open to all students, are activated (see more details in the field FURTHER INFORMATION).

TEACHING METHODS

The course will alternate lectures and practical metric reading exercises.

Lessons will take place in person. Attendance, although not compulsory, is highly recommended.

Only those who attend lessons in presence will be deemed attending students.

The teacher, upon specific  e-mail request by single students, could allow them to attend lessons remotely and to access the recordings of the lessons via Teams.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

The ninth book of Apuleius's Metamorphoses: the stories of adultery

Among the numerous stories included in the main plot of the adventures of Lucius transformed into a donkey, the adultery stories of the ninth book of the Metamorphoses (captured by Lucius' long ears, the very symbol of his auditory curiosity) represent a unitary cycle of extraordinary significance and importance. . The cycle, which begins with a lepid and lively tale, gradually turns towards increasingly dark tones, in an implicit condemnation of the sensual pleasure that will lead the protagonist to the final conversion to the cult of Isis and to the return to human form. The novellas of the ninth book thus constitute a real novelistic model, and will in fact be reworked by Boccaccio in the Decameron, constituting an inescapable paradigm for the history of Italian and European short stories.

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

9 credit program:

Monographic course:

1) Apuleio, Le Metamorfosi, a cura di Lara Nicolini, BUR 2005 (in originale latino solo il l. IX, in italiano lettura di tutto il romanzo); 

Non attending students will add: Apuleio, Le novelle dell’adulterio (Metamorfosi, IX), a cura di Silvia Mattiacci, Firenze 1996;

Supplementary texts (individual preparation by the students):

2) Seneca, Medea (Seneca, Medea. Fedra, a cura di Alfonso Traina e Giuseppe Gilberto Biondi, BUR, Milano 1989).

3) Cicerone, De divinatione, libro I (Cicerone, Della divinazione, a cura di Sebastiano Timpanaro, Garzanti 1988, with the important commentary notes).

4) Ovidio, Heroides 4 (Fedra a Ippolito); 12 (Medea a Giàsone): (Ovidio, Lettere di eroine, a cura di Gianpiero Rosati, BUR, Milano 1989).

5)  History of Latin Literature: from the origins to the Vth century AD

It is recommended a good literary history manual for the Liceo classico, for example  G.B. Conte, Profilo storico della letteratura Latina, Le Monnier, Firenze 2019 (or, especially for those who had not already studied in high school the history of Latin literature, it is recommended the literary history with an anthology of texts Storia e testi della Letteratura Latina, edited by G. B. Conte and E. Pianezzola, ed. Le Monnier).

6) For essential knowledge in the field of grammar, syntax and metrics, you should use:

A. Traina, G. Bernardi Perini, Propedeutica al latino Universitario, Bologna, Pàtron 1988.

The chapter of this volume relating to metrics can be usefully integrated or replaced with the chapter (about twenty pages) by Sebastiano Timpanaro, Introduction to Latin prosody and metrics, which will be uploaded by the teacher on Aulaweb and then made available to students.

6 credit program:

Monographic course:

1) Apuleio, Le Metamorfosi, a cura di Lara Nicolini, BUR 2005 (in originale latino solo il l. IX, in italiano lettura di tutto il romanzo); 

Non attending students will add: Apuleio, Le novelle dell’adulterio (Metamorfosi, IX), a cura di Silvia Mattiacci, Firenze 1996;

Supplementary texts (individual preparation by the students):

2) Seneca, Medea (Seneca, Medea. Fedra, a cura di Alfonso Traina e Giuseppe Gilberto Biondi, BUR, Milano 1989).

3) Cicerone, De divinatione, libro I (Cicerone, Della divinazione, a cura di Sebastiano Timpanaro, Garzanti 1988, con le importanti note di commento).

4)  History of Latin Literature: from the origins to the Vth century AD

It is recommended a good literary history manual for the Liceo classico, for example G.B. Conte, Profilo storico della letteratura Latina, Le Monnier, Firenze 2019 (or, especially for those who had not already studied in high school the history of Latin literature, it is recommended the literary history with an anthology of texts Storia e testi della Letteratura Latina, edited by G. B. Conte and E. Pianezzola, ed. Le Monnier) .

5) For essential knowledge in the field of grammar, syntax and metrics, you should use:

A. Traina, G. Bernardi Perini, Propedeutica al latino Universitario, Bologna, Pàtron 1988.

The chapter of this volume relating to metrics can be usefully integrated or replaced with the chapter (about twenty pages) by Sebastiano Timpanaro, Introduction to Latin prosody and metrics, which will be uploaded by the teacher on Aulaweb and then made available to students.

3 credit program:

Monographic course:

1) Apuleio, Le Metamorfosi, a cura di Lara Nicolini, BUR 2005 (in originale latino solo il l. IX, in italiano lettura di tutto il romanzo); 

Non attending students will add: Apuleio, Le novelle dell’adulterio (Metamorfosi, IX), a cura di Silvia Mattiacci, Firenze 1996;

2)  History of Latin Literature: from the origins to the Vth century AD

It is recommended a good literary history manual for the Liceo classico, for example  G.B. Conte, Profilo storico della letteratura Latina, Le Monnier, Firenze 2019 (or, especially for those who had not already studied in high school the history of Latin literature, it is recommended the literary history with an anthology of texts Storia e testi della Letteratura Latina, edited by G. B. Conte and E. Pianezzola, ed. Le Monnier).

3) For essential knowledge in the field of grammar, syntax and metrics, you should use:

A. Traina, G. Bernardi Perini, Propedeutica al latino Universitario, Bologna, Pàtron 1988.

The chapter of this volume relating to metrics can be usefully integrated or replaced with the chapter (about twenty pages) by Sebastiano Timpanaro, Introduction to Latin prosody and metrics, which will be uploaded by the teacher on Aulaweb and then made available to students.