Romance Philology (advanced)

The learning objective of this course is to further explore the historical-comparative study of Romance languages and literature and to introduce the students to the guiding principles of textual criticism and its application regarding Romance medieval texts and their manuscript tradition.

At the end of the course, the students will have a detailed knowledge of the Romance literature of the Middle Ages, set against their literary and historical background. The students will learn the principles of textual criticism, with a focus on the manuscript traditions of the texts written in the Romance languages of the Middle Ages. The students will learn the historical grammar of the texts proposed in the course. They will achieve a wider awareness of the importance of the philological study of the texts and of the tools of textual criticism. The students will become skilled in the interpretation of the literary works in their formal aspects, content and broader historical and cultural context. The students will be able to paraphrase Old Italian texts or to translate texts in other Romance languages. The students will apply and understand the secondary literature and different methodological perspectives. The students will comment on and expand upon the texts and the specific topics covered in the course, using properly Romance Philology's technical terms