Ateneo - UPO

History of the Latin handwriting from antiquity to the printing press and transcription exercises from facsimiles of manuscripts.

Regular attenders will be examined on their notes, on the texts examined during the lessons and uploaded online (DIR) and on B. Bischoff, Paleografia latina. Antichità e Medioevo, Padova 1992 or A. Petrucci, Breve storia della scrittura latina, any edition. Non-attending students will be examined on the same texts and books of the regular attenders and on a few other essays that they will agree with the teacher. Fac-similes repertoires and other palaeographic tools will be described during the lessons and personally specified to non-attending students, in case they would be interested in improving their abilities. Those students who would like to iterate the course will agree an alternative programme with the teacher.

Acquiring an adequate knowledge of the history of Latin handwriting; learning to read and analyse the manuscripts, either books or documents.

At least a school knowledge of the Latin language, otherwise it will be almost impossible to follow the lessons and to succeed with the final exam, given that more than 90% of the texts that will be analysed will be in Latin.

Except for the introductory ones, all lectures will be split in two sections. The first part will be dedicated to the history of handwriting and the second one to the exercises with the fac-similes of the relevant medieval manuscripts.

At least a tour to a Piedmontese Library or Archive will be made in order to examine medieval manuscripts and/or documents. In case there will be enough time a monographic lesson will be held by an outside scholar. Didactic materials related to the course can be accessed on DIR.

Written and oral. The exam will take place in a single day: the candidates will first deal with the written part and then, once the correction of their papers will be completed, the oral one. The students will have two hours of time to conclude the written test, during which they will transcribe the fac-simile of a simple manuscript which they did not read during the lessons, specify its handwriting type and place it chronologically with an acceptable degree of approximation. The students will be allowed to use a Latin-Italian dictionary. During the oral test, candidates will be asked about the general notions they learned in class and by studying th essays indicated in the syllabus and to read the texts they addressed in class exercises. The written test will contribute approximately to the 40% of the final evaluation, while the remaining 60% will be equally divided between the oral checking of the student's general knowledges and his ability to read the manuscripts examined during the lessons. Students are not allowed to split the exam in two sessions keeping the mark they received in the written part.

The course aims to provide an adequate knowledge of the historical developments of writing systems, to provide information about major figures and contexts of the history of handwriting and to enable the students to directly approach simple roman and medieval manuscripts and epigraphs.

Adequate knowledge of the history of writing; basic informations about the writing of the ancient and medieval sources; read and analyse simple texts.