ROMANCE PHILOLOGY
Academic year and teacher
If you can't find the course description that you're looking for in the above list,
please see the following instructions >>
- Versione italiana
- Academic year
- 2022/2023
- Teacher
- GIUSEPPE MASCHERPA
- Credits
- 6
- Didactic period
- Primo Semestre
- SSD
- L-FIL-LET/09
Training objectives
- The aim of the course is double: 1. to provide students with the historical, philological and linguistic coordinates necessary to orient themselves in the textual galaxy (Latin and vernacular) of the travel literature in medieval Romance Europe; 2. to make them able to approach a very complex textual tradition such as the Marco Polo's and Rustichello's "Devisement dou monde" one, grasping its fundamental features.
Prerequisites
- None. The professor will provide students with all didactic materials and with all textual excerpts read in class (if necessary, accompanied by the translation from Old French and Latin into Italian).
Course programme
- First of all, the course will offer an overview of the different types of travel texts (from simple 'itineraria' to travel reports, to geographic and ethnographic treatises) written in Romance Europe, in Latin and in vernacular, between the end of Antiquity and the Late Middle Ages, and of the texts that conveyed to the Western world distorted information about Asia, before Asia was explored. This overview will be useful to outline the historical and cultural context in which Marco Polo's travel experience, later condensed in the pages of the "Devisement dou monde" ("Milione"), took place.
After a brief digression on Polo's biography, based on the information that can be get both from the "Devisement" and the Venetian archival documents, we will focus on the genesis and on the wide and multilingual textual tradition - direct and indirect - of the "Devisement dou monde". Particular attention will be paid to the complex history of its writing: indeed, recent philological investigations have allowed to identify different writing phases. Didactic methods
- Face-to-face lectures.
No live video or video recordings of lectures will be available, unless the public health emergency status is restored; instead, preparatory video lectures will be produced (especially for non-attending students), in which the most important aspects of the topics discussed in class will be presented. These lectures, as well as other teaching material, will be available in the Classroom, whose code is w67dl6x. Learning assessment procedures
- The exam will be oral: the professor will test students' knowledge of both the topics covered during the course and the bibliography.
Students will also be asked to comment on the textual extracts read in class. Reference texts
- The following essays are required reading.
(a) For an overview of travel literature in the Romance Middle Ages:
- Laura Minervini, "La letteratura di viaggio", in "La letteratura romanza medievale", a cura di Costanzo di Girolamo, Bologna, il Mulino, 1994, pp. 297-308.
(b) On the overall features of Marco Polo's book:
- Cesare Segre, Introduzione a Marco Polo, "Milione. Le divisament dou monde", a cura di Gabriella Ronchi, Milano, Mondadori, 1982 ("I Meridiani"), pp. XI-XXIX.
(c) On the textual tradition:
- Alvise Andreose, "La tradizione manoscritta del 'Devisement dou monde'. Vecchi problemi e nuove prospettive", in Id., "Raccontare il mondo. Storia e fortuna del 'Devisement dou monde' di Marco Polo e Rustichello da Pisa", Alessandria, Edizioni dell'Orso, 2020, pp. 61-87.
(d) On the language of the Franco-Italian redaction (F):
- Alvise Andreose, "Marco Polo's 'Devisement dou monde' and Franco-Italian tradition", in "Francigena", 1, 2015, pp. 261-291 [downloadable here: https://www.francigena-unipd.com/index.php/francigena/article/view/6/6].
(e) On other themes and issues:
- Alvaro Barbieri, "Marco Polo e l'Altro", in Id., "Dal viaggio al libro. Studi sul 'Milione'", Verona, Fiorini, 2004, pp. 157-175;
- Valeria Bertolucci Pizzorusso, "Enunciazione e produzione del testo nel 'Milione' ", in Ead., "Scritture di viaggio. Relazioni di viaggiatori e altre testimonianze letterarie e documentarie", Roma, Aracne, 2011, pp. 27-67;
- Eugenio Burgio, "Marco Polo e gli 'idolatri'", in "Le voci del Medioevo. Testi, immagini, tradizioni", a cura di Sonia M. Barillari, Alessandria, Edizioni dell'Orso, 2005, pp. 31-62;
- Leonardo Olschki, "L'Asia di Marco Polo. Introduzione alla lettura e allo studio del 'Milione'", Firenze, Sansoni, 1957 (a chapter of your choice).
The full reading of the 'Devisement dou monde' is optional: those interested can turn to the early 14th-century Tuscan edition, in the following edition:
Marco Polo, "Milione", a cura di Valeria Bertolucci Pizzorusso, indice ragionato di Giorgio R. Cardona, Milano, Adelphi, 1994.
Non-attending students are asked to contact the professor.
