509231 - Exegesis of Latin Literary Texts - B

courses

ID:

509231

Duration (hours):

36

CFU:

SSD:

LINGUA E LETTERATURA LATINA

Year:

2025

Date/time interval

Primo Semestre (22/09/2025 - 19/12/2025)

Course Objectives

The course intends to organize, on the basis of specific samplings of texts, a critical laboratory aiming at individuating and interpreting, thanks to the active contribution of students attending the lectures, Latin authors' significant writing practices in their linguistic, stylistic, generic and cultural-historical features. At the end of the course, students must be able to read and interpret a Latin literary text in all its aspects: metric (poetic texts), linguistic-stylistic, content-related. They will have to know how to place it in the Latin literary tradition, in the genre history and in the historical-cultural context. They must be able to read, in parallel with the literary texts, the related ancient preserved commentaries and the main commentaries and other modern critical contributions, up to the most recent, focusing on the problematic issues and establishing, where possible, a connection between exegesis ancient and modern (or, on the contrary, highlighting elements of discontinuity).

Course Prerequisites

Having passed the written examination of Latin language. Knowledge of Latin literature from the beginnings to the 2nd century A.D. It is also recommended: - good knowledge of A. Traina - G. Bernardi Perini, Propedeutica al latino universitario; - knowledge of the principles of prosody and metrics and at least of the hexameter and the elegiac couplet; - knowledge of the foundamentals of textual criticism. The morphosyntactic comptence of the Latin language must be considered fundamental, and will be verified during the exam.

Teaching Methods

Lectures on the monographic part of the program, with indications for the study of the parts reserved for individual study. The lectures will be supplemented by seminars with the active participation of the students.

Assessment Methods

The examination will be only oral about all the sections of the program.

Texts

1. Seneca, La fermezza del saggio. La vita ritirata, a cura di N. Lanzarone, Milano, Rizzoli (BUR); in alternativa: Seneca, La fermezza del saggio, a cura di R. Marino, Santarcangelo di Romagna, Rusconi, 2025.
2. Lo spazio letterario di Roma antica, VI: I testi: 1. La poesia (direttore P. Parroni), Roma, Salerno ed., 2009.

A) MONOGRAFIC COURSE Subject of the course: Ancient and modern commentaires on Aeneis: the book V. B) PERSONAL DEEPENING 1. Reading, translation, linguistic analysis and commentary of: - Seneca's De constantia sapientis. 2. Reading, translation, linguistic analysis and commentary of the following text from vol. VI ("La poesia") of «Lo spazio letterario di Roma antica» (see Bibliography). chpt. I: Ennio, Annales 34-50 Skutsch; Virgilio, Eneide 10, 439-509; Ovidio, Metamorfosi 3, 339-512 oppure Lucano, Pharsalia 1, 98-182 chpt. II: Lucrezio, De rerum natura 5, 925-1090: Virgilio, Georgiche 1, 438-514; Orazio, Ars poetica 38-72 chpt. III: Plauto, Mostellaria 431-531; Terenzio, Adelphoe 635-712; Seneca, Thyestes 122-175 chpt. IV: Catullo, carme 68b + 2 carmi a scelta fra 5; 11; 50; 76; Orazio, Odi 2,14; 3,8; 4,7; Stazio, Silvae 2,4 chpt. V: Properzio, Elegia 1,3; Tibullo, Elegia 2,3 oppure Ovidio, Tristia 1,3 chpt. VI: Virgilio, Bucolica 2 chpt. VII: Lucilio 1326-1338 Marx; Orazio, Satira 1,4; Giovenale, Satira 6, 1-37 chpt. VIII: Marziale, Epigrammi 4,49; 10,4; 2,77; 5,34; 1,10; 3,9; 8,19; epigr. 1; 12,31 chpt. IX: Fedro, Appendix Perottina, Favola 15.

Course Language

Italian

More information

The final grade will consist of the reasoned average of the results achieved in the two modules A and B. Module B must be taken after taking module A.