ID:
501006
Duration (hours):
36
CFU:
6
SSD:
STORIA MEDIEVALE
Year:
2025
Overview
Date/time interval
Primo Semestre (22/09/2025 - 19/12/2025)
Syllabus
Course Objectives
- to be able to reflect on a general methodological problem in the historical sciences: how can literary texts (here: short narratives, i.e. novellas and similar forms) be used as sources for the history of a given era, here of the 14th-15th centuries? - to be able to reflect on the differences and commonalities between 'literary' and 'historiographical' writing, both past and modern - to test and to deepen the methodological concepts acquired in the "modulo A" - to get insights in the most important bibliography on the topic, to read critically the results of modern research and to become aware of the international character of medieval studies.
Course Prerequisites
The condition for attending the (oral) exam of the modulo B is to have passed successfully the (written) exam of the modulo A.
Teaching Methods
- lectures - Powerpoint presentation of source material and images (to be downloaded from the platform KIRO e-learning: https://elearning.unipv.it)
Assessment Methods
The main criterion for a successful exam – besides the knowledge of the most important aspects of the content of the course – is the student's competence in reflecting on the problems raised by historical sources. For students who will attend the class: Oral exam about the content of the lessons and the programme of reading. For students who will not attend the class: Oral exam about the entire programme of reading and the historical context of the topic. Not attending students are requested to contact the professor in time. NB: "To attend the class" means actively participating in at least 80% of the lessons.
Texts
(A) Reading for students who will attend the class: (1) notes from the lessons (2) Andrea Zorzi (with Enrico Faini, Francesco Mores, Pierluigi Terenzi), Manuale di storia medievale. Seconda edizione, Torino, UTET, 2021, pp. 329-end (3) Bruno Figliuolo, Andreuccio da Perugia e (è?) Cenni di Bardella, in Boccaccio e Napoli. Nuovi materiali per la storia culturale di Napoli nel Trecento. Atti del Convegno (Napoli-Salerno, 23-25 ottobre 2013), a cura di Giancarlo Alfano et alii, Firenze (Franco Cesati), 2014, pp 231-243 (4) Maria Esposito Frank, The Historical Background of Decameron I 2: Abraam Giudeo’s Decision to Go to Rome, in “Studi sul Boccaccio”, 51 (2023), pp. 131-172 (B) Reading for students who will not attend the class: (1) Andrea Zorzi (with Enrico Faini, Francesco Mores, Pierluigi Terenzi), Manuale di storia medievale. Seconda edizione, Torino, UTET, 2021, pp. 329-end (2) Reading of all the original novellas chosen for the course, as indicated in the "Piano delle lezioni" and reflected in the texts uploaded on the course KIRO page (3) Anita Simon, Le novelle e la storia. Toscana e oriente fra Tre e Quattrocento, Roma (Salerno) 1999 (4) Bruno Figliuolo, Andreuccio da Perugia e (è?) Cenni di Bardella, in Boccaccio e Napoli. Nuovi materiali per la storia culturale di Napoli nel Trecento. Atti del Convegno (Napoli-Salerno, 23-25 ottobre 2013), ed. by Giancarlo Alfano et alii, Firenze (Franco Cesati) 2014, pp 231-243 (5) Maria Esposito Frank, The Historical Background of Decameron I 2: Abraam Giudeo’s Decision to Go to Rome, in “Studi sul Boccaccio”, 51 (2023), pp. 131-172.
Contents
'History and Literature: Novellas as Historical Sources for the Late Middle Ages'- The course addresses a methodological challenge that arises whenever we deal with the history of a civilisation that has left both historiographic and 'literary' narratives. Historians of literature have always reflected on the relationship between their texts and reality (approaches such as the sociology of literature, Erich Auerbach's concept of mimesis, psychoanalysis). Here, however, it is a question of reversing the perspective: what could be the contribution of texts considered literary, i.e. of 'fiction' (but the precise delimitation of a 'literary' field is anything but easy!), to history, in this case to the work of medieval historians? What historical questions can literary sources answer? What are the best methods to assess the interest of a fictional text as a historical source? The genre we will focus on is the fourteenth- and fifteenth-century novellas: above all the 'Decameron', but also Franco Sacchetti's 'Trecentonovelle' and other fourteenth- and fifteenth-century collections. This is, on the one hand, an approach that also touches on the problem, more topical than ever, of the relationship between fact and fiction. On the other hand, the reading of selected novellas will also serve to elaborate on certain historical contexts of the late Middle Ages. The purchase of a cheap edition of the "Decameron" (e.g. Garzanti, ed. A.E. Quaglio, various editions) is recommended.
Course Language
Italian
Degrees
Degrees (4)
HUMANITIES
Bachelor’s Degree
3 years
HUMANITIES
Bachelor’s Degree
3 years
PHILOSOPHY
Bachelor’s Degree
3 years
PHILOSOPHY
Bachelor’s Degree
3 years
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