Research program
Interpreting and communicating. School traditions in the Latin literature produced between III and VI century A.D.
University Co-ordinator
Università della CALABRIA -
FILOLOGIA - ARCAVACATA DI RENDE(CS)
Research Unit Leader
Benedetto CLAUSI
Description
The object of this research is Jerome's polemic production, specifically the "argumentatio" in "Adversus Helvidium" (383) and in "Adversus Iovinianum" (393), whose two members of this research group are preparing a critical edition for the «Corpus Christianorum». The inquiry is about the rhetoric structure of two polemic works, relating to the research from which the coordinator and the members have already obtained scientific results, made known in international and national proceedings. Particularly, it inquires on the forms which "argumentatio" undertakes in the two "Streitschriften". The two writings, notwithstanding the long interval and the different historic and geographic context, are bound together by a common defence of ascetic choice, especially of virginal choice.They vary, though, in their logical and formal structures, techniques of "argumentatio", hermeneutical choices for the interpretation of the biblical text. If the "argumentatio" is the very heart of the dispute, its analysis will permit realizing the literary characteristics of the two writings, both to understand the position the author undertakes in "confirmatio" (or "probatio") of his own theses and in "confutatio" (or "reprehensio") of the opponents. We shall evaluate the different structural strategies, the choices of "elocutio", argumentative techniques, the choice and presentation of evidences, both technical and non-technical.We shall direct our attention to the main but different role the Bible plays in the two writings as a reservoir of "exempla" and "testimonia". They express a knowledge common to the writer, the opponent and the readers. An extraordinary variety of forms and functions makes the Bible the ideal completion of the polemist's tactical agility. At the same time, the Bible, for its authority, is the measure of orthodoxy. The study of the (different) ways in which Jerome uses the Bible in "Adversus Helvidium" and in "Adversus Iovinianum" will allow us to enter the renewal of the polemic genus. Thus we could show the keen arrangement of classical knowledge, with new functions and meanings and also bring to light the emergence of new perspectives relating to the several meanings of the biblical text.In the first year, two articles will be published concerning the two polemical works. In the second year, we hope to publish a book about "Adversus Iovinianum", with a restored Latin text, an Italian translation, a commentary and an introductive essay, which will approach the different problems and aspects of the work (historical and cultural context, rhetorical structure, doctrinal purposes).
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