LEARNING OUTCOMES

The students will have to develop, in addition to an in-depth knowledge of the Latin texts at master's level, also a good theoretical awareness of the mechanisms of their reception in European literature, and a practical ability to investigate such lending, imitation, re-use and rewriting traditions through the exemplary cases presented during the course.

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

The students  will have to develop, in addition to an in-depth knowledge of the Latin texts at master's level, also a good theoretical awareness of the mechanisms of their reception in European literature, and a practical ability to investigate such lending, imitation, re-use and rewriting traditions ( in close parallel with what is similar in the tradition of visual arts) through the exemplary cases presented during the course.

PREREQUISITES

A solid knowledge of the history of Latin Literature and of the Latin language, as well as a competence in metrics (hexameter and pentameter) is required, as well as the successful completion (at the  master's degree) of the Preliminary written Test of Translation from Latin.

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

TEACHING METHODS

Lectures and possibly seminar discussion based on papers produced by the students.

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 'stories of adultery' of the IX book of Apuleius's Metamorphoses and the Italian novellistic tradition

Among the numerous stories included in the main plot of the adventures of Lucio transformed into a donkey, the adultery stories of the ninth book of the Metamorphoses (captured by Lucio's 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 novellistictradition.

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

1) Apuleio, Le Metamorfosi, a cura di Lara Nicolini, BUR 2005 (in latin only book IX, in italian or english translation all the novel); see also  Apuleio, Le novelle dell’adulterio (Metamorfosi, IX), a cura di Silvia Mattiacci, Firenze 1996;

2) Boccaccio, Il Decameron, novella VII, 2; Novella V,10;

3) Giovanni Sercambi, Il Novelliere, nov. 137;

4) Matteo Maria Boiardo, Orlando Innamorato, II 26. 20-50 (il racconto di Doristella);

5) Publio Filippo Mantovano, Il Formicone;

6) Girolamo Morlini, Novellae: nov. 31; nov. 35; nov. 14; nov. 30.

Further information on the texts in question will be provided in class​.