90096 - West Medieval Manuscript

Learning outcomes

The course focuses on the sudy of the latin and vernacular manuscript in its codicological and graphic features, between Classical Antiquity and Renaissance. At the end of the course students deeply know forms and shapes of West Medieval manuscript, and the specific methodologies of the palaeography and codicology. They acquire a critical knowledge of the writing history and they are also able to locate and date the manuscripts.

Course contents

It’s easy to call something a “book”... The rectangular object, typically made of wood pulp paper, printed, folded, trimmed, and sewn along the left margin, which we (less and less frequently) use for obtaining information or pleasure by reading its content, is, in fact, just one of the many text-containing models experimented with in Greco-Latin cultured Western Europe. Its success, which has never been questioned even in our digital cyberspace era, was determined by a cultural and economic agreement between scholarly humanists and early printers in the mid-15th century. This was the moment when Europe fully entered the Gutenberg Galaxy, leading to an irreversible transformation in the dissemination of ideas and content.

The course aims to illustrate, using the methodological tools and academic content of Latin paleography and codicology, the history of book models and the scripts they imposed and transmitted in the Roman world and its medieval continuation. Unlike other university courses in the historical and literary fields, these topics require an understanding, or even familiarity, with conceptual and interpretative frameworks that students do not possess, neither having received them from secondary education nor having the opportunity to use them, more or less consciously, to understand today's reality.

In this course, therefore, (1) we will attempt to provide or indicate some of these frameworks, these interpretative tools of the dynamic graphic-book reality; to exemplify, by considering some episodes from the history of Latin script, what the main mechanisms of script evolution can be; to outline, as a first approximation, the main phases of this history, which can then be excellently studied through the manuals listed later. Basic notions will be schematically presented regarding the definition of the discipline and its object (writing, understood as the “act of writing” and the book as the place where it finds its most complete manifestation); some information on aspects and phenomena characteristic of the writing activity as it formed and developed first in the Roman world, then in Western Europe; the writing materials and tools used; the preparation of the material to receive the writing; the form and composition of the manuscript (subjects proper to codicology); the system of abbreviations that is necessary to know to correctly read any manuscript produced in the "Latin" world, particularly in the medieval period.

The course will also show (2) the method of paleography, its research and analysis tools, its parameters for interpreting graphical facts; how these parameters have been developed and differentiated by different paleographic "schools," and what trends seem to currently guide the research.

Finally, it will be shown (3) how the method of paleographic research can be applied to the history of Latin writing, divided according to the periodisation proposed by Cencetti and refined by Petrucci, which remains substantially valid in its general division into four major phases: 1. Latin writing in the Roman era; 2. Early medieval graphic particularism; 3. Carolingian-Gothic script unity; 4. Humanistic and modern scripts.

Readings/Bibliography

1. Textbooks:

– M. L. Agati, Il libro manoscritto da Oriente a Occidente. Per una codicologia comparata, Roma: «L'Erma» di Bretschneider, 2009 (capp. I-VIII, XI)

– A. Petrucci, Breve storia della scrittura latina, Roma: il Bagatto, 1989 (Roma: il Bagatto, 1992: nuova edizione riveduta e aggiornata; Perugia-Verona, 2022: edizione elettronica a cura di M. Bassetti e A. Ciaralli [libero accesso su Virtuale])

– A. Petrucci, Prima lezione di paleografia, Roma-Bari: Editori Laterza, 2002 (Universale Laterza, 811)

** Non-attending students will replace these two last reference texts with:

– P. Cherubini, A. Pratesi, Paleografia latina. L’avventura grafica del mondo occidentale, Città del Vaticano: Scuola Vaticana di Paleografia, Diplomatica e Archivistica, 2010 (Littera Antiqua, 16)

2. Further readings

** Any text from the following selection:

– Libri, editori e pubblico nel mondo antico. Guida storica e critica, a cura di G. Cavallo, Roma-Bari: Editori Laterza, 2002 (Biblioteca Universale Laterza, 297) [prima edizione: Roma-Bari, 1992]

– Libri, editori e pubblico nell'Europa moderna. Guida storica e critica, a cura di A. Petrucci, Roma-Bari: Editori Laterza, 2003 (Biblioteca Universale Laterza, 297) [prima edizione: Roma-Bari, 1989]

– Libri e lettori nel Medioevo. Guida storica e critica, a cura di G. Cavallo, Roma-Bari: Editori Laterza, 2016 (Biblioteca Universale Laterza, 296) [prima edizione: Roma-Bari, 1998]

– Le biblioteche nel mondo antico e medievale, a cura di G. Cavallo, Roma-Bari: Editori Laterza, 2023 (Biblioteca Universale Laterza, 250) [prima edizione: Roma-Bari, 1998]

– Storia della lettura nel mondo occidentale, a cura di G. Cavallo e R. Chartier, Roma-Bari: Editori Laterza, 2021 (Biblioteca Storica Laterza, 250) [prima edizione: Roma-Bari, 2009]

– L. Del Corso, Il libro nel mondo antico. Archeologia e storia (secoli VII a.C.-IV d.C.), Roma: Carocci Editore, 2022 (Frecce, 341)

– L. Buono, Medioevo monastico nello specchio dei libri, Spoleto: Fondazione CISAM, 2023 (I tascabili, 3)

Teaching methods

Frontal lessons; practice sessions: various types of handwritten sources from the 6th century BCE to the 15th century CE will be explored and interpreted.

Further study materials and additional resources can be accessed on the course's Virtual page, with the password available upon request from the teacher.

** For regularly attending students: The teacher may assign a project, which will be the initial topic discussed during the exam.

Assessment methods

Class attendance is recommended to achieve a good result. All those who cannot attend the course for demonstrable reasons of work are required to agree their syllabus in advance during the lecturer’s office hours.

The exam will be an oral discussion where students can choose a topic or discuss an assigned research project from class. Evaluation will consider how well students know and understand the topics covered in lectures and the recommended readings, their ability to communicate effectively using the specialized language of the discipline, their skills in summarizing and analyzing themes and concepts, and their overall critical, methodological, and interpretative abilities.

Any gaps in knowledge, the use of inappropriate language, or a lack of engagement with the course materials will be assessed negatively.

Teaching tools

Practical activities:

- Annotated projection of various types of handwritten sources spanning from the 6th century BCE to the 15th century CE.

- Annotated projection of specific case studies related to dated or datable manuscript codices within the relevant centuries.

- Annotated projection of specific case studies related to dated or datable manuscript charters within the relevant centuries.

In the 'Virtual teaching resources' section - which can be accessed with a password that the teacher will communicate at the beginning of the lessons - the basic teaching material will be available from the start of the course (exemplary and in-depth Power Points, links to videos and handouts provided by the teacher). Furthermore, the recordings (or the link to the recordings) of the first two actual lessons of the course (which will be held in the classroom) will be available on Virtuale, so that everyone (attending, non-attending, workers, etc.) will be able to retrieve the orientation information for the course.

Please note that initiatives (educational visits, seminars, conferences, book presentations...) indicated and/or organized by the teacher are to be considered supplementary to the teaching and will be recognized during the exam.

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All student who are affected by learning disability (DSA) and in need of special strategies to compensate it, are kindly requested to contact prof. Bassetti, in order to be referred to the colleagues in charge and get proper advice and instructions.

https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en/for-students

Office hours

See the website of Massimiliano Bassetti