LEARNING OUTCOMES

The module aims to outline the learning outcomes of the Teaching Classical Philology with specific reference to classical Greek texts and their traditions: in-depth knowledge of the mechanisms and terminology of textual criticism; competences needed to reconstruct manuscript traditions, to discuss variants, to suggest conjectural emendations of a text; learning to read a critical edition of an ancient Greek text and to fully understand the information in the apparatus and the praefatio and their consequences; ability to use bibliographic tools and online databases relevant to this discipline.

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

Participation in the activities and / or individual study will allow the student to:
- know the mechanisms and the terminology of textual criticism as applied to the texts of classical Greece;
- apply general knowledge to the use of critical editions;
- use the bibliographical tools and online databases relevant to the discipline;
- understand and interpret data relating to Greek manuscript traditions;
- acquire an appropriate vocabulary to outline and critically discuss (also in writing) the different aspects of the discipline.

PREREQUISITES

A good command of ancient Greek language.

TEACHING METHODS

Lectures with Powerpoint presentations and images (made available on Aulaweb). Students will also be asked to actively participate, with the elaboration, in small groups or individually, of a speech of about 20/30 minutes on an established topic to be presented orally in class: this exercise is not for evaluation and does not contributes to the exam mark.

Lessons will be held in presence only. Attendance, although not compulsory, is recommended. Non-attending students are asked to contact the teacher in order to arrange a different program.

All the students are requested to register on Aulaweb.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

Between composition and transmission: the case of the Homeric poems.

Through the reading of a selection of passages from Homeric poems, with analysis of the critical apparatuses, of the digital reproductions of ancient and medieval manuscripts, of the ancient commentaries (scholia and ancient exegetical material), the specific editorial problems posed by these peculiar texts will be studied, as well as the characteristics of their transmission in the ancient and medieval phases. Attention will be paid to the topic of their composition stages and manner (the so-called Homeric question) and the influence it has on the approach to textual and editorial issues. The integral reading in Greek (with critical apparatus) of two books of poems (Il. 9 and Od. 8) is also assigned to the students.

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

– M.L. West, Textual criticism and editorial technique, Stuttgart 1973;

– G. PASQUALI, Storia della tradizione e critica del testo (premessa di D. Pieraccioni), Firenze, Le Lettere 1988 (reprint of the 2nd ed., Firenze 1952), chapter VI: Varianti antiche e antiche edizioni, paragraph 2 (Homer) (pp. 201-247);

–  Homeri Ilias, recensuit M. L. West, I-II, München-Leipzig, Saur 1998-2000 (only for the relevant parts);

– Homeri Odyssea, recensuit et testimonia congessit M. L. West, Berlin-Boston 2017 (only for the relevant parts).

– One at student’s choosing between:

G. Nagy, Homeric Questions, Austin, University of Texas Press 1996;

or

M.L. West, Studies in the Text and Transmission of the Iliad, München-Leipzig, Saur 2001, Part I, The transmission (pp. 3-170).

The passages examined in class will be made available on Aulaweb. Digital reproductions of the parts of manuscripts examined in class and useful for the exercises will be supplied, if they are not available online.