Lectures on textual criticism and (Germanic) vernacular manuscript cultures I (2021/2022)

Obiettivi formativi

On successful completion of this module, PhD students should be able to:
- understand the tenets of the philology concerned with medieval textuality
- compare different approaches to the study and edition of medieval vernacular texts
- recognize features and peculiarities of medieval manuscript traditions
- identify some of the most typical codicological, palaeographical and textual features of Germanic manuscript culture
- familiarize with some specific digital tools and methods for the study and the edition of medieval manuscripts

The course will deliver the basics for the study of medieval vernacular manuscript culture. First, the philological notion of text will be discussed. To this end, an excursus into the history of modern textual criticism will contextualize the decline of the traditional platonic one-text model in favour to a more inclusive and material approach to the unstable medieval textuality. Given the specific features of Germanic and vernacular traditions, which will be illustrated, the traditional idea of constitutio textus has undergone a significant process of revision: in this context, the edition of single documents has become the centre of current scholarly editing trends, as numerous projects can help understand.

PhD Students can choose aspects of the module as topic of their term paper.