Italian Philology and Formal Analysis

The course aims to provide students with advanced training in textual analysis methods at various levels (linguistic, metrical, stylistic, intertextual, structural, etc.) in relation to philological issues raised by texts from the Italian literary tradition.

Through the application of formal analysis methods to specific cases in Italian literature, students will develop the skills necessary to understand and address the main philological issues:
- the assessment of variant readings in traditions with multiple witnesses,
- the collocation in space and time of individual witnesses,
- the definition of the formal format of an edition,
- the typical problems of author philology (identification of redactions, drafts, stratifications, variants),
- questions of attribution, dating and criticism,
- the interpretation of the text, regarded as the ultimate goal of philological research.
Students will acquire the skills needed to define the formal and stylistic characteristics of a work, a corpus or an author.
Students will be able to handle and evaluate critical editions and commentaries and to use the main tools required for philological research, including those offered by the development of digital humanities.