RICERCA ITALIANA     

A census of Medieval and Renaissance Latin writers and of their works (years 500-1500)

Università degli Studi di Lecce

Abstract

It is well-known that the studies on the ancient classic tradition have available repertories that establish, save rare exceptions, the forms of the names of the writers and of their works. This condition is not given for the writers of the Middle Ages and Humanism. The "census" we propose aims at filling this gap, producing first of all (thanks to the work of perusal of specific studies on the matter, of national and international reference lexicons, of monographs and to the systematic comparison of data deduced from such instruments) a complete list the Latin writers operating in the period between VI and XVI centuries called "Bibliotheca Scriptorum Latinorum Medii Recentiorisque Aevi" (=B.I.S.L.A.M.),. For each author are recorded the essential biographical information, all the ascertained variants of the name and the practised literary genres. Are also recorded studies that offer information on the single author, specifying the kind of information they offer (biography, bibliography, list of works). Thanks to this list has been published a first CD-ROM and a printed volume with a selection of authors and relative bibliographic references.
Following up this first outline of the whole project, that allows the availability of an instrument of great importance especially for librarians, has already started a second phase that leads to the creation of a "Compendium Auctorum Latinorum Medii Aevi" (C.A.L.M.A.), a reference book and a bibliographical guide useful to researchers of medieval and humanistic Latin world, that can offer a comprehensive recognition of the Latin literary production. Seven printed issues of C.A.L.M.A. have been published till now, containing the authors that begin with A and part of B. <<<

Principal Investigator

Francesco SANTI Università degli Studi di LECCE

Research Objectives

The census "Bibliotheca Scriptorum Latinorum Medii Recentiorisque Aevi" (BISLAM) and the repertory "Compendium Auctorum Latinorum Medii Aevi" (CALMA) are researches conceived according to a common and integrated project.
In the first issue of BISLAM (2004) were listed 5.300 writers, in the second issue will be listed 10.000 writers at least. The increase is due to the different source of the examined material. In BISLAM 1 the source was the specialist periodical "Medioevo latino", in BISLAM II it is represented by 43 reference books of every European state entirely perused, together with many others, utilized for the necessary integrations. For each author will be recorded all the ascertained variants of the name (organized in an exhaustive reference grid), biographical information in order to solve eventual cases of homonyms and the practised literary genres, as well as all the sources that contributed to the choice of the lemma, specifying works that offer biographic, bibliographic and philological information regarding the author and his work.
As far the project CALMA, we intend to continue the publication of the fascicles arriving in 2006 ( II,2 e II,3 issue) to complete the information to the author "Bernardus". For each author is elaborated a file containing the following information: 1) lemma and dates (of birth, of death and of ascertained literary activity); 2) the list of works attributed to the author, including those of dubious authenticity, with an eventual reference to other authors to which the work is ascribed. For each work CALMA offers, thanks to the perusal of special studies, of national and international reference lexicons, of monographies, and to the systematic comparison of the data deduced from such research instruments, the following information: 1. the study/studies containing list of authors in which the work is mentioned; 2. its edition/editions; 3. the manuscript/manuscripts by which it is transmitted, in case of an unpublished or only partially published text; 4. specific studies devoted to it.
The "census" aims to build and to improve an instrument essential to scholars and libraries, providing exhaustive tools for the consultation of medieval Latin and humanistic authors, as well as a bibliographic guide concerning the same authors, contributing in solving the above mentioned problems of identification and classification and filling the gap deriving from inadequacy, partiality or peculiarity of current instruments. The three research units have asked and obtained the cooperation of the "Società Internazionale per lo Studio del Medioevo Latino" for the printing of the accomplished works. The material already elaborated is placed in the offices of the above mentioned Society and there it can be consulted. <<<

Timescale

24 months

National and international background

If names of classic and modern authors are nearly univocally defined according to rules generally shared and to a consolidated tradition, in the case of names of medieval authors, composed for the most part of the first name and the name of the country or city they come from (for example Richardus Anglicus),or the patronymic (for example Bernardus Guidonis), or a nickname (for example Radulphus Glaber), it is sometimes very difficult to identify different persons having the same name and vice versa. Both researchers and librarians have by now at their disposal neither a complete and reliable list of such authors nor a complete list of their works. Reference books on this argument are in fact:
- extremely obsolete (cfr. J. Fabricius; J.H. Sbaralea; J. Bale; the first volumes of Histoire littéraire de la France, Paris 1733-63; etc.);- or partial (cfr. for example the works on single religious orders: T. Kaeppeli; Dictionnaire des auteurs cisterciens; A. Zumkeller; Ecrivains, artistes et savants de l'Ordre de Prémontré. Dictionnaire bio-bibliographique cur. L. Goovaerts);
- or geographically limited (R. Sharpe; M.C. Diaz y Diaz; Dictionnaire de biographie française; Dizionario biografico degli italiani; Noveau répertoire des oeuvres médiolatines belges);
- or chronologically limited (Clavis Scriptorum Latinorum Medii Aevi. Auctores Galliae; Clavis Patrum Latinorum; L'Europe des Humanistes [XIVe-XVIIe siècles]; M.E. Cosenza);
- or addressed to specific disciplinary fields (J.B. Schneyer; A. Potthast; F. Stegmueller; C.H. Lohr; P. Glorieux);
- or unreliable for different reasons (L. Wadding; J. Leland; Clavis Scriptorum Graecorum et Latinorum).

The project BISLAM aims therefore to fill a gap in the field of works about medieval and humanistic Latin authors, that offer a complete list of medieval Latin and humanistic authors, supported by the project CALMA as to the studies about the author, with particular reference to the identification and the ascription of the works and the manuscripts in which he is contained. <<<