Course teached as: B020982 - PALEOGRAFIA Second Cycle Degree in ARCHIVES AND LIBRARIES
Teaching Language
Italian
Course Content
This course will provide a historical overview of the different documentary scripts between XIth and XIVth centuries, the origin of a new book script (littera textualis) and the use of documentary scripts in book production (XIIIth-XIVth centuries). The course will also provide an introduction to the description of mediaeval manuscripts.
1. E. Casamassima, Tradizione corsiva e tradizione libraria nella scrittura latina del Medioevo, Roma, 1988 (con ristampe successive).
2. La scrittura del libro nel Duecento, in Civiltà comunale : Libro, Scrittura, Documento. Atti del Convegno, Genova, 8-11 novembre 1988, Genova 1989, pp. 315-54.
3. I. Ceccherini, Le scritture dei notai e dei mercanti a Firenze tra Duecento e Trecento: unità, varietà, stile, in “Medioevo e Rinascimento”, 24, 2010, pp. 29-68.
Learning Objectives
This course will provide a cutting-edge knowledge of documentary and book scripts between XIth and XIVth centuries.
Prerequisites
Excellent skills in reading and speaking Italian; knowledge of history and of cultural history from late Antiquity to the Middle Age; good skills in reading Latin; basic knowledge of Latin palaeography, codicology and diplomatics.
Teaching Methods
Oral lessons, with presentation and analysis of photographic reproductions of Latin scripts. Seminars in Florentine archives and libraries.
Further information
no
Type of Assessment
Written exercises and oral examination.
Course program
Definition and historical ground of Palaeography (research field, method and purpose).
Methods and principles of palaographical analysis: writing as a system of signs; relationship between ductus and letter forms; writing angle; size and weight. Writing techniques: formal hand (writing stroke after stroke), cursive hand (currenti calamo scribere); different forms of the same letter; ligatures; majuscule and minuscule scripts; style.
Books and documents: their materials, shape and use; writing tools.
Introduction to mediaeval handwriting in the Latin West from the late XIth century until the XIVth century: documents and books.
Main mediaeval systems of abbreviation. Principles of transcription.
Exercises in cataloguing mediaeval manuscripts.