B003151 - HUMANISTIC LITERATURE

Italian

The aim of this course is to present two aspects of Petrarch’s production, mainly his Latin epistolography and vernacular poetry, through the analysis of some exemplary texts: on the one hand, the V book of his Letters of Old Age (especially the first three letters, written to Giovanni Boccaccio), on the other hand a number of lyrics of the Canzoniere and some sections of the Triumphi of which we also possess the testimony of the so-called “codice degli abbozzi”.

F. Petrarca, Senili, libro V, in Id., Res Seniles, vol. II, a cura di S. Rizzo, con la collaborazione di M.
Berté, Firenze, Le Lettere, 2009, pp. 18-111.
F. Petrarca, Senile V 2, a cura di M. Berté, Firenze, Le Lettere, 1998.
F. Petrarca, Invective contra medicum, a cura di F. Bausi, Firenze, Le Lettere, 2005.
F. Petrarca, Canzoniere, a cura di M. Santagata, Milano, Mondadori, 2018.
F. Petrarca, I trionfi, a cura di V. Pacca, e Il manoscritto Vaticano Latino 3196, a cura di L. Paolino,
in Id., Trionfi. Rime estravaganti. Codice degli abbozzi, introduzione di M. Santagata, Milano,
Mondadori, pp. 41-626 e 755-890.

F. Bausi, Petrarca antimoderno. Studi sulle invettive e sulle polemiche petrarchesche, Firenze,
Cesati, 2008, pp. 109-143.
V. Pacca, Petrarca, Bari, Laterza, 1998 (solo i capp. 4, 5, 6).
M. Berté - M. Petoletti, La filologia medievale e umanistica, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2017 (soltanto
i capp. I, II, IV).

The course has the following objectives:
- Knowledge: at the end of the course the student will be familiar with some of the main aspects of the figure and work of Francesco Petrarca, with special attention to his epistolary work and his poems in the vernacular; a special focus on the relationship of the author with the principal cultural and philosophical debates of his time; on his method of composing and reworking on his compositions; the manuscripts (autographs, idiographs, apographs) of the works covered during the lecturess. The student is made aware of the basic problems of humanistic philology and the peculiar characteristics of the critical edition of similar texts.
- Applied comprehension skills: at the end of the course the student is able to historically contextualize the figure and work of Petrarca, with particular attention to the philological study of the texts; he/she can read and interpret the proposed writings from a thematic, historical, rhetorical, stylistic, linguistic point of view; he /she can consciously use critical editions and master the tools necessary for commenting on texts.
- Making judgements: By the end of the course, the student will be capable of critically elaborating the content discussed in class.
- Communication skills: By the end of the course, the student will clearly and effectively discuss the topics dealt with in the individual lectures, applying appropriate specialist vocabulary; he/she establishes a fruitful exchange with teachers and other students; he/she appropriately comments on the topics treated during the course.
- Learning skills: By the end of the course, the student will have acquired methodological skills and strategies for the study of literature and the interpretation of texts.

A basic knowledge of Latin is required.

Lectures, also with the support of IT tools. Regular attendance and active participation are recommended.

For the Canzoniere and for the Triumphi, editions other than those indicated above are also allowed, as long as they are previously subjected to the approval of the lecturer. If in doubt or in case of problems, please contact the lecturer. During the lectures other indications concerning further bibliography will be given; additional texts and materials relating to the subject matter will be provided in PDF or photocopy: knowledge of this material is necessary for the examination.

The oral exam will be divided into three parts: reading, translation, contextualization and commenting of passages addressed specifically in class; questions about the author and his works to be prepared independently; questions concerning philological methodology. If an appropriate certification is presented, students with disabilities and students with Specific Learning Disorders, those unable for health reasons to attend the examination as scheduled, may negotiate an alternative type of examination with the teachers.

Petrarch epistolographer and poet (between Latin and the vernacular)
The course will analyse some of Petrarch’s epistolographic and poetic texts: a 'senile' letter, some poems taken from the Canzoniere, some parts of the Trionfi. By reading and commenting on these writings, some aspects of Petrarch's literary activity, culture and ideology will be illustrated, also in relation to other authors and to the main cultural and philosophical debates of the time.The close study of these writings will also allow the students to tackle philological issues both of a general nature (the manuscript tradition, the philology of the copy and of the original, the critical edition, the graphic rendering of ancient vulgar texts), and more specifically Petrarch's production: the autograph-idiograph of the Canzoniere, the “codice degli abbozzi”, the times and methods of the re-elaboration of his writings, as they can be reconstructed from the manuscript tradition (autograph and apograph).

4, 5, 8