RICERCA ITALIANA     

Interpreting and communicating. School traditions in the Latin literature produced between III and VI century A.D.

Università degli Studi di Foggia

Abstract

On the basis of convergent and closely connected methodologies, the research program gathers five local research units (Cosenza, Foggia, Genova, Lecce, Napoli “Federico II”) which, in their turn, have come to include the units of three other Universities: the project addresses the late ancient Latin literature with the aim of investigating its preservation and innovation mechanisms compared to the scholastic tradition; its purpose is to produce preparatory essays for new editions, editions provided with translation and commentary, investigations on the tradition and interpretation of late ancient and patristic works, studies on how these texts were received. <<<

Principal Investigator

Marcello MARIN Università degli Studi di FOGGIA

Research Objectives

The purpose of this research program is to carry out a study on the circulation and tradition of late ancient and patristic texts, so as to analyse the elements of continuity and change compared to the usually acknowledged, accredited models, and to produce new editions equipped with translation and commentary. We have chosen the authors who have been generally overlooked – because of the period and the context in which they wrote – or Christian authors for whom patristic philology has more specifically honed the framework of theoretical reference and its instruments over the last decades: the strict application of the historical-philological method and the synchronic choice of the field of study confer unity and grounding upon the various and complementary interests and expertise of the proponents.
With particular regard to the classical-profane context, specific attention will be paid to a series of “technical” medical-scientific writings of the late ancient culture and to the Servian commentary, in order to examine the text analysis techniques and methods. As regards Christianity, the interest will hinge on the study and publication of new editions of Jerome’s “Adversus Iovinianum” and Augustine’s “De catechizandis rudibus”; preparatory studies for new critical editions, whose publication seems necessary, will be addressed to the “Tractatus” ascribed to Priscillian and Jerome’s polemic works. Textual criticism research will be supported by a series of studies with essays on the transmission, reception and exegesis of late ancient literary texts and the renewed communicative functions of the literary forms, with the aim to define the role played by the ancient school in the relations of preservation, transformation, innovation in contact with the new Christian contents. <<<

First Results

Contributions are expected on the programmatic statements included in the “praefationes” of the Servian commentary, on the tradition of medical-scientific texts, on the culture of the Fathers in relation with the vegetable world, on the cultural education of Tertullian, on Priscillian as biblical exegete and his patristic sources, on Jerome and the renewal of the polemic “genus” (rhetorical structure, arguing strategy, the role of the Scripture in the “Adversus Helvidium” and in the “Adversus Iovinianum”), on Augustine and the definition of the Christian homily, on hagiography and Christian poetry (the arguing role of the “loci communes”, the interaction between classical and Christian elements into the biblical paraphrase, centonical technique); an essay on the legal Roman tradition in Gregory the Great’s “Registrum epistolarum” will be completed. Furthermore, an edition with translation and linguistic and exegetic comment of Augustine’s “De catechizandis rudibus” is expected to be performed.Contributions will be made to the Servian commentary, the tradition of medical-scientific texts, the culture of the Fathers related to the vegetable world; essays on the language of Tertullian, on the handwritten tradition of Priscillian’s “Tractatus”, on implicit historical-doctrinal issues and the doctrinal trends contemporary to the “Adversus Helvidium” and the “Adversus Iovinianum”, on the compositional aspects of homiletics and Augustine’s epistolary, on the in-depth analysis of issues, such as individual freedom and ethics in Pelagian movements, on biblical paraphrase and centonical technique, on the persistence of exegetic modules in hagiographic literature and on Paulinus of Nola’s and his disciple’s, Uranius, characters. The publication of a volume on “Adversus Iovinianum”, containing a revision of the Latin text (as opposed to that published in PL) on the basis of the most ancient manuscripts along with an Italian translation and commentary and an introduction on the various aspects of the work (historical-cultural context, rhetorical structure, doctrinal elements) is expected. <<<

Timescale

24 months

National and international background

The editions and studies on late ancient authors, despite their recent rise, are not entirely suited to the number and significance of the works conveyed to us: the research program aims at bridging some of the most considerable gaps in the Latin profane and Christian context. Concerning the specific contents of late ancient texts, the investigation of the close relations with the scholastic milieu and its long-standing critical tradition, of the editorial elements which mark the “technical” works of profane literature, of the compositional aspects characterizing the development and evolution of Christian writings cannot be disregarded. Instruments, techniques and methods of text commentaries and the strategies of communication to a varied audience represent a common trait in profane circles, marked by the great commentaries to the most representative authors of the Latin period, and in Christian circles, committed to framing the lines and criteria by which the Scripture has to be interpreted: exegetic contents, which are an outright new contribution made by Christian texts to the ancient literary framework, are conveyed by processes of communication resorting to classical rhetorical techniques.
The scholastic-grammatical and medical-scientific works of the Late Antiquity profane literature call for finer editing to recover and analyse implicit ancient traditions; the new Christian literature needs determining its features in relation with communication forms, with the role played by the rhetorical education shared by the entire ancient school, with the influences between classical rhetoric and the biblical culture of the Fathers. Analytic methods avail themselves of rhetorical instruments aiming at decoding a comprehensive interpretation of texts in the context of the ancient culture and in relation to the successive cultural tradition. With regard to publishing, the specific editing of patristic texts benefits from the new methodological contributions that have established sounder foundations for the examination of an often extensive and complex handwritten tradition and have correctly dealt with the peculiar aspects of these editions, such as those which the biblical quotations, the refrains from the classical works, the peculiar aspects of an often “uneducated” language, set with regard to textual structure. As regards to the selected authors, a number of critical editions are definitely outdated, such as Jerome’s polemic writings; others, more recently edited, require severe and considerable editing, such as the “Tractatus” ascribed to Priscillian; others call for new and more accurate commentaries, suited to the current findings on the language and the exegetic method of the specific authors, such as the “De catechizandis rudibus” by Augustine.
The majority of the texts that will be considered demands, together with the Italian translation, an accurate historical-philological and exegetic commentary. A section which has not yet been suitably researched in the history of late ancient texts is represented by how these works were received and the success they had later. <<<