Learning objectives
<br />The aim of the spcialized course is to improve competence in the discipline of Papyrology (advancing skills in reading papyrus texts and using the bibliographic instruments to deepen a correct understanding of interdisciplinary aspects offered by the sources). Introduction to a proper and responsible method of reading, interpretation and study of literary and documentary texts found on papyri.
Prerequisites
<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Prerequisites are competence both in basic Papyrology (5 ECTS) and in a historical or cultural area such as Greek Literature, Greek History, Roman History, and Classical Archaeology, for which the sources that are to be studied may be applied.<br /><br />
Course unit content
Title: The Papyrologist at Work. A methodological approach. The block course will deal with the literature and documents that have been found in Egypt. Life and culture, history and administration over the Ptolemaic and Roman periods. Archaeological context and the history of the excavations. Palaeographical examination, reading and interpretation of a selection of papyri together with more thorough investigation and exercise with the evidence supplied by literary and documentary texts (reading will include reproductions of the originals as well as translations). A specialized Seminar will deal with the transcription and study of unpublished Papyri from the Bancroft Library of Berkely, Ca.
Bibliography
E.G. Turner, Papiri greci, ed. italiana a c. di M. Manfredi, Roma: Carocci, 2002;
G. Cavallo, La scrittura greca e latina dei papiri. Una introduzione, Roma: Fabrizio Serra Editore, 2008;
H.C. Youtie, Papyrologist, Artificer of Fact, GRBS 4, 1963, p. 24 ss. (= Scriptiunculae vol. 1, 1 ss.)
E.G. Turner, The Papyrologist at Work, GRBS Monograph 6, 1973
H.C. Youtie, The Textual Criticism of Documentary Papyri: Prolegomena, 2nd ed., BICS Suppl. 33, 1974
A.K. Bowman, L'Egitto dopo i faraoni (Introd. di Edda Bresciani), Firenze: Giunti, 1997;
Th.C. Skeat, La produzione libraria cristiana delle origini: papiri e manoscritti, Firenze 1976 (fotocopie);
C. Gallazzi, Lo scavo di una discarica a Umm-el-Breigât (Tebtynis), ovvero le sorprese del pattume, Quaderni ticinesi di numismatica e antichità classiche 27 (1998), pp. 185-207
C. Gallazzi, La ricerca archeologica a Umm el-Breigât, in Maria Casini (ed.), Cento anni in Egitto. Percorsi dell’archeologia italiana, Milano: Electa, 2001, pp. 171-83;
A.E. Hanson, Papyrology: A Discipline in Flux (in G.W. Most, Ed., Disciplining Classics – Altertumswissenschaft als Beruf, Göttingen 2002 = Aporemata 6), pp. 191-206.
Teaching methods
Oral and Practical lessons.
Seminary.
Laboratory.
Oral exam and a written report on selected subjects.
