Romance Philology

The course aims at introducing the students to the historical-comparative study of Romance languages and literature starting from their medieval origin, through a direct review of their written sources.

Knowledge and understanding: at the end of the course the students will have a basic knowledge of the origins, development and classification of the Romance languages; they will also be aware of the main issues about the linguistic, literary and historical-cultural shaping of the medieval Romance world, analyzed from a comparative perspective; furthermore, they will focus on some medieval literary texts in different Romance languages, dealing with subjects as genres and critical methodologies for their interpretation. Applying knowledge and understanding: the students will have the ability to read, translate and analyze text in old Romance languages within their historical and cultural background, pointing out their linguistic features.