83249 - Latin Language and Literature 2 (LM)

Learning outcomes

The purpose of the course is to enable the student to achieve knowledge and skills relating to the forms and models of the reception of ancient Latin culture from the classical period to the contemporary age.

Course contents

The course continues that of LINGUA E LETTERATURA LATINA 1 (LM) and offers students an in-depth study of classical Latin poetry, with metric reading, translation and commentary on some particularly significant texts of Latin literature. The programme consists of four parts:

 

PART I

Reading, translation and commentary of texts by the teacher, with a critical essay chosen by the students. The texts that will be read are:

• Virgil, Georgics IV 443-527 (Orpheus and Eurydice)
• Tibullus, Elegies I 1, I 4 and I 5
• Horace, Epistles I 16
  
  

IMPORTANT:

1. Non-attending students belonging to LM 39 Degree Course are required to read all the critical essays (see Bibliography, Part I).

2. Students not belonging to LM 39 Degree Course (attending and non-attending) are required to add the reading in Latin of the following two texts: Cicero, Brutus; Seneca, Phaedra.

3. Students not belonging to LM 39 Degree Course and non-attending are required to study the texts listed above at n. 2 and to replace the texts read in class with the reading, in Latin, of Tacitus, Germany, and of book 1 of Ovid, Metamorphoses, adding the reading of two critical essays (see Bibliography, Part. IV, n. 3).

 

PART II

Latin Literature from the Archaic Age to the Imperial Age (included).

Along with the knowledge of genres, authors and works presented during the lessons, students are required to study the Latin literature from the Archaic to the Imperial Age (included), with periodization and with a general historical framework, with reference, in particular, to the following authors: Augustine, Apuleius, Catullus, Caesar, Cicero, Ennius, Juvenal, Jerome, Livy, Livius Andronicus, Lucan, Lucilius, Lucretius, Martial, Naevius, Horace, Ovid, Petronius, Plautus, Pliny the Elder, Propertius, Quintilian, Sallust, Seneca, Statius, Suetonius, Tacitus, Terentius, Tibullus, Virgil.

 

PART III

Elements of Latin grammar, prosody and metrics.

Basic linguistic knowledge, continuing LATIN LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE 1 (LM), regarding phonetics, morphology, lexicon, elements of syntax.

Knowledge of the rules of prosody and the main meters of the Latin poetic tradition is required, in particular the hexameter and elegiac couplet, with metric reading of the texts in programme.

 

PART IV

Reading and translation of a text to be prepared by the students:

• Virgil, Aeneid, book 2.

 

PART V

Practices in prosody and metrics.

The practical lessons will be held by a tutor. Attendance is highly recommended for all students (link to the course page here). Lesson time will be communicated in due course.

Readings/Bibliography

 PART I

Bibliography for the texts that will be read during classes:

• for Vergil's Georgics: P. Vergili Maronis Opera, recognovit brevique adnotatione critica instruxit R.A.B. Mynors, Oxford 1969. English editions: Vergil. Georgics, vol. 2: books 3-4, edited by R.F. Thomas, Cambridge 1988; Vergil. Georgics, edited with a commentary by R.A.B. Mynors, Oxford 1990.

• for Tibullus' Elegies: Albi Tibulli aliorumque Carmina, edidit G. Luck, Stuttgart 1988. English edition: R. Maltby, Tibullus: Elegies. Text, introduction and commentary, Cambridge 2002.

• for Horace's Epistles: Q. Horatii Flacci Opera, edidit S. Borzsak, Leipzig 1984. Italian editions: Orazio. L'esperienza delle cose (Epistole, libro I), a cura di Andrea Cucchiarelli, Venezia, Marsilio 2015; Orazio, Epistole I, introduzione, traduzione e commento a cura di Andrea Cucchiarelli, Pisa, Edizioni della Normale, 2019. English edition: Horace, Epistles, Book I, edited by Roland Mayer, Cambridge 1994. 

 

Students are also required to read one essay chosen from the following (further readings will be suggested during lessons):

• M. Citroni, Dedicatari e lettori della poesia di Orazio, in Letture oraziane, a cura di G. Bruno, Venosa 1993, pp. 55-81.
• G.B. Conte, Aristeo, Orfeo e le Georgiche: una seconda volta, in Id., Virgilio. L'epica del sentimento, Torino 2007, pp. 65-89.
• R. Perrelli, Rus e scelta di vita, in Id., Il tema della scelta di vita nelle elegie di Tibullo, Soveria Mannelli 1996, pp. 9-37.

 

IMPORTANT:

Non-attending students belonging to LM 39 Degree Course are required to study all the three essays listed above.

 

PART II

For literary history we recommend G.B. Conte, Letteratura latina. Manuale storico dalle origini alla fine dell'impero romano, Firenze, Le Monnier, 2002.

 

PART III

For language institutions we recommend I. Dionigi - E. Riganti - L. Morisi, Il latino, Bari, Laterza 2011. For the syntax A. Traina, Sintassi normativa della lingua latina, Bologna, Cappelli, 1993. For particular phonetical, morphological, syntactical problems, A. Traina - G. Bernardi Perini, Propedeutica al latino universitario, Bologna, Pàtron, 2007, chapters II-VI.

For metrics the reference manual is A. Traina – G. Bernardi Perini, Propedeutica al latino universitario, Bologna, Pàtron, 2007 (chap. VII); for further readings we recommend S. Boldrini, La prosodia e la metrica dei Romani, Roma, Carocci, 1998.

 

PART IV

• for Vergil's Aeneid, book 2: P. Vergili Maronis Opera, recognovit brevique adnotatione critica instruxit R.A.B. Mynors, Oxford 1969. Italian editions: Virgilio. Eneide, traduzione di Mario Ramous, introduzione di Gian Biagio Conte, commento di Gianluigi Baldo, Venezia, Marsilio 1998; Virgilio, Eneide 2, Introduzione, traduzione e commento a cura di Sergio Casali, Pisa, Edizioni della Normale 2017. English edition suggested: N. Horsfall, Virgil, Aeneid 2. A commentary, Leiden-Boston, Brill 2008.

 

IMPORTANT:

1. Non-attending students belonging to LM 39 Degree Course are required to study all the three critical essays listed at Part I.

2. Students not belonging to LM 39 Degree Course (attending and non-attending), are required to study, in addition to the texts listed at Part I, the following texts in Latin:

• Cicero, Brutus: ed. Cicerone, Brutus, introduzione, traduzione e note di E. Narducci, Milano, Rizzoli, 1995; or Cicerone, Bruto, introduzione, traduzione e commento di R.R. Marchese, Roma, Carocci, 2011.
• Seneca, Phaedra: ed. Seneca, Fedra, introduzione, traduzione e commento di A. Casamento, Roma, Carocci, 2011.

3. Students not belonging to LM 39 Degree Course and non-attending are required to study the texts listed above (n. 2) and to replace the texts listed at Part I with the following (in Latin):

• Tacitus, Germania: ed. Tacito, Germania, saggio introduttivo, nuova traduzione e note a cura di S. Audano, Santarcangelo di Romagna, RL, 2020; or Tacito, Germania, a cura di B. Zanco, Milano, Dante Alighieri, 1997.
• Ovid, Metamorphoses, book I: ed. Ovidio, Metamorfosi. Volume I. Libri I-II, a cura di A. Barchiesi, Milano, Mondadori, 2005.

In addition, students are required to read two essays chosen from the following:

• A. Michel, Tacito e il destino dell’impero, Torino, Einaudi, 1973 (pp. 55-81).
• G. B. Conte - A. Barchiesi, Imitazione e arte allusiva, in Lo spazio letterario di Roma antica, I. La produzione del testo, Roma, Salerno Editrice, 1989, pp. 81-114.
• A. Barchiesi, Per una lettura delle Metamorfosi di Ovidio, in F. Citti - L. Pasetti - D. Pellacani (a cura di), Metamorfosi tra scienza e letteratura, Firenze, Olschki, 2014, pp. 123-136.

 

Teaching methods

Part I will be taught as classroom lessons; Parts II-III-IV are up to the students' individual study.

For Part V there is a support course by a tutor. 

Assessment methods

The test will consist of an oral exam, aiming at verifying: the student's ability to read metrically, translate and understand the Latin texts in programme; knowledge of the rules of prosody and metrics (especially in relation to the hexameter and the elegiac couplet); recognition of the grammatical structure of texts (with regard to phonetics, morphology and basic syntax); knowledge of the history of literature from the Archaic Period to the Imperial Age inclusive (in relation to individual authors, genres, historical-literary periods); understanding of critical essays and of the themes of the texts under examination.

 

The evaluation will be given by the teacher according to the following parameters:

- Insufficient level: lack of basic linguistic knowledge and inability to produce a correct translation and interpretation of texts; lack of knowledge of literary history.

- Sufficient level: possession of basic literary and linguistic knowledge; translation and interpretation of texts mainly correct, but carried out with imprecision and little autonomy.

- Positive level: possession of intermediate level literary and linguistic knowledge; translation and interpretation of the texts fully correct, but not always precise and autonomous.

- Excellent level: possession of medium-high level literary and linguistic knowledge; correct, autonomous and precise translation and interpretation of the texts.

Teaching tools

Slides of the lessons, essays, and other teaching materials will be available online. 

Office hours

See the website of Tommaso Ricchieri