Greek and Latin Philology
A.Y. 2024/2025
Learning objectives
The course aims at providing students with tools fit to evaluate the text of Greek and Latin authors, who came to us by direct or indirect tradition, through manuscripts, papyrus scrolls, epigraphs. Students will learn the method by which they can establish the text closest to the original, and then proceed to detect anomalies with respect to the linguistic use of the age, genre and author, and propose a sound correction.
Expected learning outcomes
Knowledge
At the end of the course the student will have achieved a sound knowledge of stemmatic principles that lead to the constitution of the text of Greek and Latin authors (identification in the manuscript tradition of conjunctive and separative errors, errores significativi, that lead to settle the relationship between the manuscripts), of the methods of evaluation and correction of the text given by the archetype, or by codex unicus, papyrus or epigraph, in relation to the indirect tradition. In order to judge and correct the text, the student will have strengthened linguistic, metric, palaeographic and papyrological knowledge.
Skills
In view of preparing a critical edition the student will be able to:
- use the main tools of textual criticism (with particular attention to the processes of the recensio, examinatio and emendatio),
- identify and remove textual corruptions, and build the critical apparatus and the other apparatuses (for references to sources, parallels, imitations, quotations);
- study the history of the text in its most significant moments up to the most recent critical editions.
At the end of the course the student will have achieved a sound knowledge of stemmatic principles that lead to the constitution of the text of Greek and Latin authors (identification in the manuscript tradition of conjunctive and separative errors, errores significativi, that lead to settle the relationship between the manuscripts), of the methods of evaluation and correction of the text given by the archetype, or by codex unicus, papyrus or epigraph, in relation to the indirect tradition. In order to judge and correct the text, the student will have strengthened linguistic, metric, palaeographic and papyrological knowledge.
Skills
In view of preparing a critical edition the student will be able to:
- use the main tools of textual criticism (with particular attention to the processes of the recensio, examinatio and emendatio),
- identify and remove textual corruptions, and build the critical apparatus and the other apparatuses (for references to sources, parallels, imitations, quotations);
- study the history of the text in its most significant moments up to the most recent critical editions.
Lesson period: Second semester
Assessment methods: Esame
Assessment result: voto verbalizzato in trentesimi
Single course
This course can be attended as a single course.
Course syllabus and organization
Single session
Responsible
Lesson period
Second semester
Course syllabus
The course will deal with complex texts, Epicurus' works, the philosophical poem of Lucretius, and the "Poetics" of Philodemus, which rest on different foundations: Epicurus' texts on the indirect tradition of Diogenes Laertius (especially the three long letters) and on the many Herculaneum papyri; Lucretius' tradition is based on a very limited number of medieval manuscripts, whose recensio leads to results that are still debated (bipartite or tripartite stemma?); finally, as for Philodemus, we rely on the carbonized papyri of Herculaneum, discovered in the second half of the eighteenth century, which are the only books to hand down to us, in often very fragmentary conditions, the philosophical treatises of Epicurus, his disciples and the scholars of the Garden, and above all those of Philodemus of Gadara (1st century BC).
Prerequisites for admission
Prerequisites for admission are the abilities to:
- read fluently the original Greek and Latin texts (both prose and poetry) of the ancient world, showing awareness of the evolution and diversification of the language (for Greek it is necessary to know the main literary dialects);
- to identify and read the main Greek and Latin meters and strophic systems (dactilic hexameters and elegiacs, iambic trimeters, trochaic tetrameters, phalaecians, Sapphic and Alcaic strophes).
- read fluently the original Greek and Latin texts (both prose and poetry) of the ancient world, showing awareness of the evolution and diversification of the language (for Greek it is necessary to know the main literary dialects);
- to identify and read the main Greek and Latin meters and strophic systems (dactilic hexameters and elegiacs, iambic trimeters, trochaic tetrameters, phalaecians, Sapphic and Alcaic strophes).
Teaching methods
Main points of the teaching method are: 1) as far as the teacher is concerned, a) the exposition of handwritten traditions, through lectures illustrating the main manuscripts (some images of the discussed passages will be projected) and their relationships; b) for the indirect tradition, the examination of grammatical, lexicographical and scholiatic sources and their peculiar way of quoting ancient authors; c) for papyri and epigraphs, the history of their discovery and the chance of improving the reading of damaged parts; d) the reading of important texts of the authors, with close attention to the major variants and emendations and the discussion (examinatio) of the parts supposed to be sound and which may be corrupt; 2) as far as the students are concerned, an active cooperation that is stimulated unceasingly through the examination of the texts and their apparatus.
In one of the three teaching units, organized as a seminar, the students will present a section of the text, pointing out the results of the research and trying to propose new interpretations or textual solutions. Attendance at the courses is strongly recommended.
In one of the three teaching units, organized as a seminar, the students will present a section of the text, pointing out the results of the research and trying to propose new interpretations or textual solutions. Attendance at the courses is strongly recommended.
Teaching Resources
Teaching Resources
In addition to the material which is provided in class, students are required to study the following work:
- P. Maas, La critica del testo, traduzione a cura di G. Ziffer, Seconda edizione, Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, Roma 2021.
Reference texts
Teaching Unity A:
- T. Dorandi (ed.), Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Cambridge University Press («Cambridge Classical Texts and Commentaries», 50), Cambridge 2013, Liber X, pp. 733-824.
Teaching Unity B: :
- H. Diels (ed.), T. Lucreti Cari De rerum natura libri sex recensuit, emendavit, supplevit H.D., Weidmann, Berolini 1923;
- C. Bailey (ed.), Titi Lucreti Cari De rerum natura libri sex, edited with Prolegomena, Critical Apparatus, Translation and Commentary by C. B., voll. I-III, Clarendon Press, Oxford 1947;
- E. Flores (ed.), Titus Lucretius Carus, De rerum natura, Edizione critica con Introduzione e Versione a cura di E. F., voll. I-III, Bibliopolis, Napoli (La Scuola di Epicuro, supplementi 2,4,5) 2002-2009.
Teaching Unity C:
- C. Mangoni (ed.), Filodemo, Il quinto libro della Poetica (PHerc. 1425 e 1538), ed., trad. e comm. a cura di C. M., Bibliopolis, Napoli (La Scuola di Epicuro, 14) 1993;
- R. Janko (ed.), Philodemus, On Poems Book 1, edited with Intr., Transl., and Comm. by R. J., Oxford University Press, Oxford 2000;
- R. Janko (ed.), Philodemus, On Poems, Books 3-4, with the Fragments of Aristotle, On poets, edited with Intr., Transl., and Comm. by R. J., Oxford University Press, Oxford 2011.
In addition to the material which is provided in class, students are required to study the following work:
- P. Maas, La critica del testo, traduzione a cura di G. Ziffer, Seconda edizione, Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, Roma 2021.
Reference texts
Teaching Unity A:
- T. Dorandi (ed.), Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Cambridge University Press («Cambridge Classical Texts and Commentaries», 50), Cambridge 2013, Liber X, pp. 733-824.
Teaching Unity B: :
- H. Diels (ed.), T. Lucreti Cari De rerum natura libri sex recensuit, emendavit, supplevit H.D., Weidmann, Berolini 1923;
- C. Bailey (ed.), Titi Lucreti Cari De rerum natura libri sex, edited with Prolegomena, Critical Apparatus, Translation and Commentary by C. B., voll. I-III, Clarendon Press, Oxford 1947;
- E. Flores (ed.), Titus Lucretius Carus, De rerum natura, Edizione critica con Introduzione e Versione a cura di E. F., voll. I-III, Bibliopolis, Napoli (La Scuola di Epicuro, supplementi 2,4,5) 2002-2009.
Teaching Unity C:
- C. Mangoni (ed.), Filodemo, Il quinto libro della Poetica (PHerc. 1425 e 1538), ed., trad. e comm. a cura di C. M., Bibliopolis, Napoli (La Scuola di Epicuro, 14) 1993;
- R. Janko (ed.), Philodemus, On Poems Book 1, edited with Intr., Transl., and Comm. by R. J., Oxford University Press, Oxford 2000;
- R. Janko (ed.), Philodemus, On Poems, Books 3-4, with the Fragments of Aristotle, On poets, edited with Intr., Transl., and Comm. by R. J., Oxford University Press, Oxford 2011.
Assessment methods and Criteria
The oral exam consists of an interview aimed at ascertaining the comprehension of the topics covered and the skill of the students to apply the method of analysis they learned to further philological problems. A first question will check the ability to construct an hypothetical stemma starting from conjunctive and separative errors of the manuscripts. The other questions, on the topics of the three teaching units, will check how deep the students can critically read the texts examined in the course, starting from a full command of lexicon, syntax and meter; the ability to organize the acquired knowledge in their own way will also be evaluated, as well as the skill to suggest links between the different parts of the program. The vote is expressed in 30/30.
Professor(s)