500984 - LATIN LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE (BASE)

courses
ID:
500984
Duration (hours):
36
CFU:
6
SSD:
LINGUA E LETTERATURA LATINA
Year:
2025

Overview

Date/time interval

Secondo Semestre (23/02/2026 - 22/05/2026)

Syllabus

Course Objectives

The objectives of the course are to provide a solid knowledge of the Latin language (morphosyntax and essential lexicon) and of the main exponents of Latin prose (from its origins to the second century AD). At the end of the course, the student will be able to translate and analyze Latin prose texts that are not particularly complex from a linguistic-formal point of view and will know the fundamental features of Latin prose production from both a chronological and eidetic point of view.

Course Prerequisites

The course is divided into a basic course and an advanced course: at the beginning of the year, students will be assigned to one or the other course on the basis of the documentation produced at the time of enrolment and the orientation interviews that will take place at the beginning of October. The criteria for assignment to the two courses are illustrated on the teacher's personal page. The assignment to the course (basic or advanced) can only be changed for valid reasons and subject to agreement with the teacher. To successfully attend the advanced course, it is necessary to have a solid knowledge of the Latin language and literature and to be able to understand and translate complex texts into prose and poetry; those who do not have such a level of competence will attend the basic course. Students who believe they are in a particular situation are required to contact the teacher. The course of Latin Language and Literature is compulsory for students enrolled in the Bachelor's degree in Literature; those who belong to another course of study at the University of Pavia or come from another university are required to contact the professor before including this course in the study plan.

Teaching Methods

The lectures will be frontal and will be intended to illustrate in detail the linguistic peculiarities of the texts examined and to present the authors covered by the course from a historical, literary and stylistic point of view.

Assessment Methods

The exam takes place in oral form. A first question will focus on the translation and linguistic analysis of Caesar's texts subject to individual study (part A); in the event of a positive outcome, a second question will take place, both linguistic and literary, on the texts of the Latin prose writers presented during the lectures and on their life and works (part B). Those who wish can present part A in an appeal and in any subsequent appeal part B. Non-attending students will be able to agree on an alternative program with the teacher.

Texts

For the Latin language: knowledge of morphosyntax and Latin vocabulary is required Recommended grammars: M. Fucecchi, L. Graverini, La lingua latina. Fundamentals of morphology and syntax. With exercises, Le Monnier, Florence (with online exercise book) or V. Tantucci, Urbis et orbis lingua, Poseidonia, Bologna = V. Tantucci, A. Roncoroni, Il mio Latino, Mondadori, Milan (grammar + exercises) or N. Flocchini, Verba manent, Lingua, lessico, civiltà, autori, Sansoni per la scuola (grammar + exercises). Dictionary: L. Castiglioni, S. Mariotti, IL, Vocabolario della lingua latina, Loescher, Torino. For a first use, it may be useful to see Mabilia, P. Mastandrea, Il primo latino, Zanichelli, Bologna. For Latin literature: knowledge of the life and works of the prose writers mentioned in point b) is required: Recommended manuals: G.B. Conte, Historical Profile of Latin Literature. From the origins to the late imperial age, Second edition, Le Monnier, Florence 2019 or A. Cavarzere, A. De Vivo, P. Mastandrea, Latin literature. A Historical Synthesis, New Edition, Carocci, Rome 2015. Readings: I would like to point out two books on Latin topics useful for integrating the contents of the course: Maurizio Trifone, Lo latino è perpetuo, Rome, Carocci 2024. Enzo Mandruzzato, The pleasure of Latin. To remember it, learn it, teach it, Turin, Lindau 2017

Contents

(a) individual study: translation and linguistic analysis of Antologia dal De bello Gallico (file uploaded by the teacher on the Kiro platform); most of the anthologized passages are published in Cesare, De bello Gallico, an anthology edited by Manuela Serrao, Signorelli, Milan (with translation and linguistic notes; owned in the Library of Humanistic Studies); the volume by M. Mortarino is also useful, M. Reali, G. Turazza, Loci scriptorum, Antologia modula di autori latini, Cesare, Torino, Loescher. (b) lectures: translation and linguistic commentary of representative texts of Latin prose; historical-literary information on the following Latin prose writers: Cato, Nepos, Caesar, Sallust, Cicero, Livy, Seneca, Petronius, Quintilian, Pliny the Elder, Pliny the Younger, Tacitus, Suetonius, Apuleius.

Course Language

Italian

More information

A student coming from the basic course who, in view of the qualification to teach Latin, intends to take more than the two compulsory Latin exams (and therefore exceed the threshold of 12 credits in the L-FIL-LET/04 Latin Language and Literature sector) must: 1- take a written test of translation from Latin; The written test can be taken from the first year of the course and has no deadline. 2- contact the teacher in charge of the third (and possibly the fourth) Latin exam to agree on a program supplement; in this regard, see also the course Kiro Latin written test (materials).

Degrees

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