Learning objectives
KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING SKILLS
The course will provide students with a thorough knowledge and understanding of the book from the XV to the XIX century from several points of view: the book will be seen as a technical-artisan product destined for a rapid development; as cultural network; as a control object by the authorities; as a commodity to be advertised, sold and recycled; as a heritage to be left to descendants. The course will also consider the resources available on the internet for identifying bibliographic sources useful for historical researches.
ABILITY TO APPLY KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING
The course will provide to the student the critical and methodological tools necessary to approach profitably the printed books of the XV to XIX centuries, intended as historical sources.
INDEPENDENCE OF JUDGEMENT
During the lessons different sides related to the production and library circulation will be interacted between them and with elements of historical reality: therefore, the students will be able to develop their autonomy of judgment in the interpretation of historical facts.
COMMUNICATION SKILLS
At the end of the course students will have acquired the ability to clearly present specialist contents related to the history of book verbally and/or in writing.
LEARNING SKILLS
Theoretical and disciplinary content of the course should provide students with the methodological tools and learning
abilities required for the continuation of studies and/or for specialist
professional activities.
Course unit content
The course is in a single Unit (6 CFU = 30 hours) which will take in the second semester.
The module is divided into two parts: the first part will offer a discussion of printmaking techniques from the XV to the XIX century, considering in particular the novelties relative to the manuscript book and the relationship between text and image.
In addition, a map of the major Italian and European typography centers will be drawn, with a special look at Venice.
The second part of the module will mention the phenomena of reading, of literacy, of library circulation, of the trade of this particular product and of ecclesiastical and secular censorship, which acted with its own strategies to control the printed texts.
Bibliography
A) Attending students:
1. Lorenzo Baldacchini, Il libro antico, Carocci, Roma, 2001 (or more recent editions).
2. Jean-François Gilmont, Dal manoscritto all’ipertesto. Introduzione alla storia del libro e della lettura, a cura di Luca Rivali, Le Monnier, Firenze, 2006 (or more recent editions), solo i capitoli terzo (I torchi manuali, pp. 75-135) e quarto (I torchi meccanici, pp. 137-172).
3.Mario Infelise, I libri proibiti, Laterza, 1999 (or more recent editions).
4. Further readings provided during classes (available on Elly platform).
B) Not attending students:
1.Lorenzo Baldacchini, Il libro antico, Carocci, Roma, 2001 (or more recent editions).
2. Jean-François Gilmont, Dal manoscritto all’ipertesto. Introduzione alla storia del libro e della lettura, a cura di Luca Rivali, Le Monnier, Firenze, 2006 (or more recent editions), chapter n. 3 (I torchi manuali, pp. 75-135) and n. 4 only (I torchi meccanici, pp. 137-172).
3.Mario Infelise, I libri proibiti, Laterza, 1999 (or more recent editions).
4. Lodovica Braida, Stampa e cultura in Europa tra XV e XVI secolo, Laterza, Roma-Bari, 2000 (or more recent editions).
Teaching methods
It is hoped that the course will be delivered through front lectures in attendance, compatibly with the updating of the guidelines about COVID-19 emergency.
The hours of frontal lessons will be integrated with seminars during which individual students will engage in in-depth analyses of specific topics– all this with the aid of the reference works and additional scholarship recommended by the teacher.
Assessment methods and criteria
Learning assessment will consist of an oral examination.
The minimum requirement to pass the exam (18-23/30) is for the student to be able to understand at a basic level the texts proposed by the teacher during the exam, to demonstrate a sufficient mastery of the topics dealt with in the frontal lessons, to express him/herself with a minimum of correctness, to develop at a sufficient level his/her own research on the topic agreed upon with the teacher. Middle-range scores (24-27/30) are assigned to the students who produce evidence of a more than sufficient or good level in the evaluation indicators listed above. Higher scores (28/30 to 30/30 cum laude) are awarded to the studentswho demonstrate a full mastery of the content of the course, a thorough competence in dealing with research tools and methodology, the ability to solve problems related to information retrieval and the decoding of complex texts and to use the adequate specialized vocabulary, the capacity of making autonomous judgments.
A fail is determined by the lack of an understanding of the minimum content of the course or of the arguments proposed at the exam, the inability to express one self adequately and to produce an autonomous reflection on the topic agreed upon with the teacher.
