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
Course 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. Federica Formiga, L’invenzione perfetta. Storia del libro, Laterza, Bari-Roma, 2021.
2. Gigliola Fragnito, Rinascimento perduto. La letteratura italiana sotto gli occhi dei censori (secoli XV-XVII), il Mulino, Bologna, 2019, chapters VI (Il poema epico. La Gerusalemme liberata e l’Orlando furioso di fronte ai censori) and VII (Il poema sacro).
3. Mario Infelise, I libri proibiti, Laterza, Bari-Roma, 1999 (or more recent editions).
4. Slides provided during classes.
B) Non attending students:
1. Lorenzo Baldacchini, Il libro antico, Carocci, Roma, 2001 (or more recent editions), or Edoardo Barbieri, Guida al libro antico. Conoscere e descrivere il libro tipografico, Le Monnier Università, Firenze, 2006 (or more recent editions).
2. Gigliola Fragnito, Rinascimento perduto. La letteratura italiana sotto gli occhi dei censori (secoli XV-XVII), il Mulino, Bologna, 2019, chapters VI (Il poema epico. La Gerusalemme liberata e l’Orlando furioso di fronte ai censori) and VII (Il poema sacro).
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
Teaching Method will be delivered through front lectures in the second period.
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.
