AIMS AND CONTENT

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

After a general introduction dedicated to explaining the fundamental philological methodologies and the main notions of textual criticism and analysis of the transmission of the texts, a brief overview of the IT tools useful for philological studies and their various functions for addressing philological questions will follow. The course will then illustrate the main processes and methods of analysis characteristic of digital philology through a series of examples of critical editions and other specific resources.

At the end of the course the student will have to:

- understand and know the methods of transmission of Italian texts and their representation in a digital environment;

- know the main material peculiarities of the witnesses transmitting Italian texts (manuscripts, ancient prints, etc.) and the digital tools useful for their localization, archiving and analysis;

- know how to analyse, contextualize and interpret the literary text on a philological basis, also making use of the possibilities offered by the digital dimension;

- know how to detect and codify the formal and stylistic data of the text in a digital environment and enhance them in the philological analysis and interpretation;

- know how to read existing digital critical editions and knowing the main procedures useful for their realization;

- know how to use the main digital bibliographic resources functional to philological analysis (repertoires, dictionaries, concordances, databases, etc.);

- be able to illustrate the principles and methods of textual criticism and digital philology using appropriate terminology;

- know how to present the results of critical-textual investigations and interpretative hypotheses using appropriate language.

PREREQUISITES

Having passed the Italian Philology exam in the bachelor’s degree course is recommended, but non mandatory.

TEACHING METHODS

Lectures, also including collective discussion on the texts and editions examined, as well as guided research on digital repertoires, archives and libraries, consultation and construction of digital critical apparatus, tests of digital coding of the text. The teacher will make the materials discussed in class available on AulaWeb.

Students who cannot attend are requested to contact the teacher before the end of the semester.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

Introduction to digital philology.

PART ONE: Digital tools for Italian philology

In this section of the course, the main issues concerning the reconstruction of the text and the analysis of the tradition will be reviewed, verifying the impact of digital tools on textual criticism and text interpretation. In particular, attention will be focused on the following topics:

- production, transmission and circulation of texts;

- census and analysis of testimonies (manuscripts, prints, other media);

- genealogical method;

- linguistic and formal restitution of the texts;

- “filologia d’autore” and analysis of variants.

SECOND PART: The digital critical edition

In this section we will examine the digital critical edition. In particular, we will focus on the following issues:

 - Various types of editions and their digital counterparts;

- Purpose and characteristics of the digital critical edition.

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

Exam Board

ALESSIO DECARIA (President)

MARCO BERISSO

LESSONS

LESSONS START

II semester

Class schedule

The timetable for this course is available here: Portale EasyAcademy

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

Oral examination. Students must demonstrate that they know the topics and problems addressed in the lessons and that they have studied the assigned essays (see Texts/Bibliography); they must also be able to discuss these topics using the specific terminology of the discipline.

Exam schedule