Nicoletta Bruno | University of Liverpool (original) (raw)

Papers by Nicoletta Bruno

›Suétone narrateur‹: Biographie und Erzählung in ›De vita Caesarum‹, edited by Edoardo Galfré and Christoph Schubert, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2024, pp. 63-82., 2024

Non, elle est générale, et je hais tous les hommes: Les uns, parce qu'ils sont méchants et malfai... more Non, elle est générale, et je hais tous les hommes: Les uns, parce qu'ils sont méchants et malfaisants; Et les autres, pour être aux méchants complaisants, Et n'avoir pas, pour eux, ces haines vigoureuses Que doit donner le vice aux âmes vertueuses. Molière, Le Misanthrope Open Access.

Nicola Festa ottant'anni dopo di N. Bianchi, R. Otranto (a cura di), Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, Roma, 2024

Karl Lachmann aveva ventitré anni quando, nella prefazione alla sua prima edizione properziana (1... more Karl Lachmann aveva ventitré anni quando, nella prefazione alla sua prima edizione properziana (1816), distinse i compiti di un criticus da quelli di un interpres. Lachmann si sentiva solo un criticus, filologo e editore del testo, e riteneva di non poter esercitare tutte le competenze di un interpres, traduttore, commentatore, critico letterario, interprete del testo, a causa della sua giovane età (itaque omisso interpretis officio, cui hanc juvenilem aetatem) 1. Il vantaggio del senno di poi ci conferma che egli continuò per tutta la vita a sentirsi un criticus, verosimilmente perché credeva nella superiorità dell'officium del criticus rispetto a quello dell'interpres, opinione che diventò certezza per il filologo tedesco, fedele e sempre coerente a quell'assunto, sebbene i due ruoli non si escludano affatto. Nicola Festa si formò come criticus e finì per sentirsi sempre tale, senza mai tralasciare il lavoro di interpres. Né poteva essere altrimenti, dato l'ampio ventaglio di interessi di ricerca e il suo approccio critico, improntato all'unità wilamowitziana della Altertumswissenschaft, alla 'filologia come totalità' 2 , a cui sarà fedele per tutta la vita. Tuttavia, in veste di interpres, nei saggi di critica letteraria sulla poesia latina di età augustea, Festa mostra di essere in linea con la critica estetica dominante in Italia, nonostante avesse tentato più volte di celarne l'influsso sui suoi scritti, come in questa pagina:

Giornale Italiano di Filologia, 2023

Trends in Classics. Journal of Classical Studies , 2023

Lexicographical investigation, carried out in the drafting of the verbs renodo and renudo in the ... more Lexicographical investigation, carried out in the drafting of the verbs renodo and renudo in the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae, can be useful for textual criticism by its proposing of new conjectures or its explanation of existing ones, by reconstructing the history and the use of a given word. This paper discusses Harm Marien Poortvliet's conjecture renudatam pharetris in place of the transmitted renodatam pharetris in Valerius Flaccus 5.380, which helps us better understand the meaning and the use of the verb renudo in the text and the different value of the prefix rein renodo and renudo, for which we also consider other contexts such as Hor. epod. 11.28.

Bruno, N., Dovico, G., Montepaone, O. and Pelucchi, M. 2022. The Limits of Exactitude in Greek, Roman and Byzantine Literature and Textual Transmission. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter., 2022

Bruno, Nicoletta, Dovico, Giulia, Montepaone, Olivia and Pelucchi, Marco. The Limits of Exactitude in Greek, Roman and Byzantine Literature and Textual Transmission, Series "Trends in Classics", Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 37-58, 2022

Silence has a powerful meaning in Tacitus’ narrative: it can be eloquent or remain ambiguous and ... more Silence has a powerful meaning in Tacitus’ narrative: it can be eloquent or remain ambiguous and can have the value of “unspoken message”. Tiberius’ silences in Tacitus’ Annals are a result of a precise political and behavioral choice. I focus on three passages from the Tiberian hexad (Ann. 1.12; 2.38; 6.50) and I point out that the behavior of the characters is often not clearly explained, but allows for different interpretations and judgments by readers and that the contents do not seem to lead to an exact understanding of the historical events. Tacitus’ Tiberian Annals are characterized by a rhetorical narrative of uncertainty where the mimetic and experiential history of Tacitus ends up by being ambiguous and obscure.

The Tacitus Encyclopedia, ed. Victoria Emma Pagán, Wiley Blackwell,, 2023

Bollettino di Studi Latini, 2022

Thesaurus Linguae Latinae, 2022

Fragmented Memory Omission, Selection, and Loss in Ancient and Medieval Literature and History Edited by: Nicoletta Bruno, Martina Filosa and Giulia Marinelli Volume 404, Beiträge zur Altertumskunde, De Gruyter, Berlin/Boston, 2022, 163-183

There is some difficulty in giving a name to this literary period. The literature of this time is... more There is some difficulty in giving a name to this literary period. The literature of this time is a fluid organic space with a myriad of interactions between writers and readers, characters, and discourses. Some authors knew each other personally, some collaborated in literary production, therefore there are interactions and conversations; cf. König/Whitton (2018) 2-3. See also Coleman (2000). The praise of the first years of Trajan's principatus was in several texts: Tac.

Thesaurus Linguae Latinae , 2021

«Maia» 72 (2/2020) 412-425, 2020

This paper intends to examine the semantic duplicity of the terms pax and anima in Lucr. v 1229-1... more This paper intends to examine the semantic duplicity of the terms pax and anima in Lucr. v 1229-1230, and examines the symbolic use of the imagery of the winds, of the storm and of the shipwreck to represent the passions in the Lucretian poem and the Epicurean remedy to them, which leads to the achievement of the divine happiness, eudaimonia.

Exemplaria Classica, 2019

Neoclassicism - What is that? ed. H-C. Günther, Verlag Bautz, Nordhausen, pp. 499-534, 2019

Exile is a jealous state. What you achieve in exile is precisely what you have no wish to share. ... more Exile is a jealous state. What you achieve in exile is precisely what you have no wish to share. (Edward Said, The Mind of Winter. Reflections on life in exile, 1984) Abbiamo imparato davvero molto, lo sai. Come viene tolto, via via, ciò che non poteva essere, le persone, le contrade.

On the Track of the Books. Scribes, Libraries and Textual Transmission, BzA 375, De Gruyter: Berlin/Boston, 2019

Futuro Classico, 2019

In una cartolina datata giugno 1899 a Giovanni Pascoli, Ettore Romagnoli commentava gli sviluppi ... more In una cartolina datata giugno 1899 a Giovanni Pascoli, Ettore Romagnoli commentava gli sviluppi della feroce polemica accademica tra gli esponenti più rappresentativi dei due indirizzi seguiti dalla filologia classica nell'Italia di fine Ottocento -Giuseppe Fraccaroli insieme a Romagnoli 1 da un lato e Girolamo Vitelli dall'altro -con queste parole: «ma non Le pare che il Pistelli abbia indicibilmente trasceso contro il Fraccaroli? E ancora non Le pare che codesto sdegno della Scuola fiorentina per la genialità e per la metrica sia un po' la favola della volpe e dell'uva?» 2 . Mentre si consumava questa polemica tra gli accademici in Italia, Giovanni Pascoli lasciava una considerevole raccolta di versi in 1 Ettore Romagnoli, nonostante la sua formazione, sembrò propendere sin da allora per la tendenza 'antifilologica'. L'allontanamento dalle pratiche della filologia della scuola fiorentino-pisana iniziò non molto dopo la sua laurea con il prevalere di un approccio estetizzante nei confronti dei testi antichi. Cfr. G. Piras, s.v. Romagnoli, Ettore, in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, LXXXVIII,

P. De Paolis, E. Romano (a cura di), Atti del IV Seminario nazionale per dottorandi e dottori di ricerca in studi latini, 1° dicembre 2017, Università degli Studi "La Sapienza" - Roma, «La Biblioteca di ClassicoContemporaneo» 10, G.B. Palumbo Editore, Palermo, pp. 42-63, 2019

Volume pubblicato online nella collana «La Biblioteca di CC» diretta da Giusto Picone e Valeria V... more Volume pubblicato online nella collana «La Biblioteca di CC» diretta da Giusto Picone e Valeria Viparelli.

M.C. Pimentel & N. Simões Rodrigues (eds.) Violence in the Ancient and Medieval Worlds, Peeters Publishers: Leuven, 2018, 17-41, 2018

eClassica , 2017

The use of analogy is commonplace in Greek philosophy. In the 'Archaeology' (1.1-23) that opens h... more The use of analogy is commonplace in Greek philosophy. In the 'Archaeology' (1.1-23) that opens his history, Thucydides examines the past by employing an analogical technique. He compares Greek historical events with the Peloponnesian War to understand its origins with the aim of making his work valuable for future readers. The use of analogy by Lucretius as a method of philosophical investigation is derived from the Atomists, Empedocles, and Epicurus. Lucretius often uses analogy as a rhetorical and didactic method of explanation: he accumulates examples, similes, and metaphors to reveal causal links between various types of natural phenomena. This chapter demonstrates that, despite the generic and stylistic differences between Thucydides and Lucretius, the analogical method reinforces the relationship between these writers, particularly in the section on the early history of mankind in Lucretius' De Rerum Natura (5.925-1457), which can be read as a Lucretian 'Archaeology' in the sense of establishing the real reasons behind the abasement and corruption of the contemporary age.

›Suétone narrateur‹: Biographie und Erzählung in ›De vita Caesarum‹, edited by Edoardo Galfré and Christoph Schubert, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2024, pp. 63-82., 2024

Non, elle est générale, et je hais tous les hommes: Les uns, parce qu'ils sont méchants et malfai... more Non, elle est générale, et je hais tous les hommes: Les uns, parce qu'ils sont méchants et malfaisants; Et les autres, pour être aux méchants complaisants, Et n'avoir pas, pour eux, ces haines vigoureuses Que doit donner le vice aux âmes vertueuses. Molière, Le Misanthrope Open Access.

Nicola Festa ottant'anni dopo di N. Bianchi, R. Otranto (a cura di), Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, Roma, 2024

Karl Lachmann aveva ventitré anni quando, nella prefazione alla sua prima edizione properziana (1... more Karl Lachmann aveva ventitré anni quando, nella prefazione alla sua prima edizione properziana (1816), distinse i compiti di un criticus da quelli di un interpres. Lachmann si sentiva solo un criticus, filologo e editore del testo, e riteneva di non poter esercitare tutte le competenze di un interpres, traduttore, commentatore, critico letterario, interprete del testo, a causa della sua giovane età (itaque omisso interpretis officio, cui hanc juvenilem aetatem) 1. Il vantaggio del senno di poi ci conferma che egli continuò per tutta la vita a sentirsi un criticus, verosimilmente perché credeva nella superiorità dell'officium del criticus rispetto a quello dell'interpres, opinione che diventò certezza per il filologo tedesco, fedele e sempre coerente a quell'assunto, sebbene i due ruoli non si escludano affatto. Nicola Festa si formò come criticus e finì per sentirsi sempre tale, senza mai tralasciare il lavoro di interpres. Né poteva essere altrimenti, dato l'ampio ventaglio di interessi di ricerca e il suo approccio critico, improntato all'unità wilamowitziana della Altertumswissenschaft, alla 'filologia come totalità' 2 , a cui sarà fedele per tutta la vita. Tuttavia, in veste di interpres, nei saggi di critica letteraria sulla poesia latina di età augustea, Festa mostra di essere in linea con la critica estetica dominante in Italia, nonostante avesse tentato più volte di celarne l'influsso sui suoi scritti, come in questa pagina:

Giornale Italiano di Filologia, 2023

Trends in Classics. Journal of Classical Studies , 2023

Lexicographical investigation, carried out in the drafting of the verbs renodo and renudo in the ... more Lexicographical investigation, carried out in the drafting of the verbs renodo and renudo in the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae, can be useful for textual criticism by its proposing of new conjectures or its explanation of existing ones, by reconstructing the history and the use of a given word. This paper discusses Harm Marien Poortvliet's conjecture renudatam pharetris in place of the transmitted renodatam pharetris in Valerius Flaccus 5.380, which helps us better understand the meaning and the use of the verb renudo in the text and the different value of the prefix rein renodo and renudo, for which we also consider other contexts such as Hor. epod. 11.28.

Bruno, N., Dovico, G., Montepaone, O. and Pelucchi, M. 2022. The Limits of Exactitude in Greek, Roman and Byzantine Literature and Textual Transmission. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter., 2022

Bruno, Nicoletta, Dovico, Giulia, Montepaone, Olivia and Pelucchi, Marco. The Limits of Exactitude in Greek, Roman and Byzantine Literature and Textual Transmission, Series "Trends in Classics", Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 37-58, 2022

Silence has a powerful meaning in Tacitus’ narrative: it can be eloquent or remain ambiguous and ... more Silence has a powerful meaning in Tacitus’ narrative: it can be eloquent or remain ambiguous and can have the value of “unspoken message”. Tiberius’ silences in Tacitus’ Annals are a result of a precise political and behavioral choice. I focus on three passages from the Tiberian hexad (Ann. 1.12; 2.38; 6.50) and I point out that the behavior of the characters is often not clearly explained, but allows for different interpretations and judgments by readers and that the contents do not seem to lead to an exact understanding of the historical events. Tacitus’ Tiberian Annals are characterized by a rhetorical narrative of uncertainty where the mimetic and experiential history of Tacitus ends up by being ambiguous and obscure.

The Tacitus Encyclopedia, ed. Victoria Emma Pagán, Wiley Blackwell,, 2023

Bollettino di Studi Latini, 2022

Thesaurus Linguae Latinae, 2022

Fragmented Memory Omission, Selection, and Loss in Ancient and Medieval Literature and History Edited by: Nicoletta Bruno, Martina Filosa and Giulia Marinelli Volume 404, Beiträge zur Altertumskunde, De Gruyter, Berlin/Boston, 2022, 163-183

There is some difficulty in giving a name to this literary period. The literature of this time is... more There is some difficulty in giving a name to this literary period. The literature of this time is a fluid organic space with a myriad of interactions between writers and readers, characters, and discourses. Some authors knew each other personally, some collaborated in literary production, therefore there are interactions and conversations; cf. König/Whitton (2018) 2-3. See also Coleman (2000). The praise of the first years of Trajan's principatus was in several texts: Tac.

Thesaurus Linguae Latinae , 2021

«Maia» 72 (2/2020) 412-425, 2020

This paper intends to examine the semantic duplicity of the terms pax and anima in Lucr. v 1229-1... more This paper intends to examine the semantic duplicity of the terms pax and anima in Lucr. v 1229-1230, and examines the symbolic use of the imagery of the winds, of the storm and of the shipwreck to represent the passions in the Lucretian poem and the Epicurean remedy to them, which leads to the achievement of the divine happiness, eudaimonia.

Exemplaria Classica, 2019

Neoclassicism - What is that? ed. H-C. Günther, Verlag Bautz, Nordhausen, pp. 499-534, 2019

Exile is a jealous state. What you achieve in exile is precisely what you have no wish to share. ... more Exile is a jealous state. What you achieve in exile is precisely what you have no wish to share. (Edward Said, The Mind of Winter. Reflections on life in exile, 1984) Abbiamo imparato davvero molto, lo sai. Come viene tolto, via via, ciò che non poteva essere, le persone, le contrade.

On the Track of the Books. Scribes, Libraries and Textual Transmission, BzA 375, De Gruyter: Berlin/Boston, 2019

Futuro Classico, 2019

In una cartolina datata giugno 1899 a Giovanni Pascoli, Ettore Romagnoli commentava gli sviluppi ... more In una cartolina datata giugno 1899 a Giovanni Pascoli, Ettore Romagnoli commentava gli sviluppi della feroce polemica accademica tra gli esponenti più rappresentativi dei due indirizzi seguiti dalla filologia classica nell'Italia di fine Ottocento -Giuseppe Fraccaroli insieme a Romagnoli 1 da un lato e Girolamo Vitelli dall'altro -con queste parole: «ma non Le pare che il Pistelli abbia indicibilmente trasceso contro il Fraccaroli? E ancora non Le pare che codesto sdegno della Scuola fiorentina per la genialità e per la metrica sia un po' la favola della volpe e dell'uva?» 2 . Mentre si consumava questa polemica tra gli accademici in Italia, Giovanni Pascoli lasciava una considerevole raccolta di versi in 1 Ettore Romagnoli, nonostante la sua formazione, sembrò propendere sin da allora per la tendenza 'antifilologica'. L'allontanamento dalle pratiche della filologia della scuola fiorentino-pisana iniziò non molto dopo la sua laurea con il prevalere di un approccio estetizzante nei confronti dei testi antichi. Cfr. G. Piras, s.v. Romagnoli, Ettore, in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, LXXXVIII,

P. De Paolis, E. Romano (a cura di), Atti del IV Seminario nazionale per dottorandi e dottori di ricerca in studi latini, 1° dicembre 2017, Università degli Studi "La Sapienza" - Roma, «La Biblioteca di ClassicoContemporaneo» 10, G.B. Palumbo Editore, Palermo, pp. 42-63, 2019

Volume pubblicato online nella collana «La Biblioteca di CC» diretta da Giusto Picone e Valeria V... more Volume pubblicato online nella collana «La Biblioteca di CC» diretta da Giusto Picone e Valeria Viparelli.

M.C. Pimentel & N. Simões Rodrigues (eds.) Violence in the Ancient and Medieval Worlds, Peeters Publishers: Leuven, 2018, 17-41, 2018

eClassica , 2017

The use of analogy is commonplace in Greek philosophy. In the 'Archaeology' (1.1-23) that opens h... more The use of analogy is commonplace in Greek philosophy. In the 'Archaeology' (1.1-23) that opens his history, Thucydides examines the past by employing an analogical technique. He compares Greek historical events with the Peloponnesian War to understand its origins with the aim of making his work valuable for future readers. The use of analogy by Lucretius as a method of philosophical investigation is derived from the Atomists, Empedocles, and Epicurus. Lucretius often uses analogy as a rhetorical and didactic method of explanation: he accumulates examples, similes, and metaphors to reveal causal links between various types of natural phenomena. This chapter demonstrates that, despite the generic and stylistic differences between Thucydides and Lucretius, the analogical method reinforces the relationship between these writers, particularly in the section on the early history of mankind in Lucretius' De Rerum Natura (5.925-1457), which can be read as a Lucretian 'Archaeology' in the sense of establishing the real reasons behind the abasement and corruption of the contemporary age.

Bryn Mawr Classical Review, 2019

Bryn Mawr Classical Review, 2019

Journal of Roman Studies , 2019

Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2013.09.25

Aufidus (66) 2009, pp.223-225.

Aufidus (66) 2008 pp.218-220

Aufidus (66) 2008, pp.218-220

Aufidus (66) 2008, pp.215-216

LMU Munich 9-10 September 2021 Organisation: Dr. Nicoletta Bruno The conference is generously s... more LMU Munich 9-10 September 2021

Organisation: Dr. Nicoletta Bruno

The conference is generously sponsored by the Fritz Thyssen Foundation

“Narrating Early Cultural History in the Ancient Literary World” is a two-day conference, sponsored by Fritz Thyssen Stiftung, that will take place in Munich at the Seidlvilla Kulturzentrum (Nikolaipl. 1B, 80802 München) and via Zoom on 9-10 September 2021.

'Practicing Rhetoric: Ancient and Early Modern Students', 24 maggio 2019, Sala De Trizio, Centro ... more 'Practicing Rhetoric: Ancient and Early Modern Students', 24 maggio 2019, Sala De Trizio, Centro Polifunzionale, ex Palazzo delle Poste - Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro, a partire dalle ore 15.00.

Dr. William Guast (University of Bristol)
What can paratexts tell us about Greek declamation in the imperial period?

Eugenio Mattioni (Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna)
Quanto aptius si ita dixisset! Lo scontro tra ciceroniani e (pochi) anticiceroniani nella trasmissione e nello studio dell’oratoria repubblicana.

Roberta Berardi (University of Oxford)
BPG 80: esercizi retorici nella Leida del ‘600?

Modera il Prof. Antonio Stramaglia
(Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro)

Il seminario 'Traduzioni d’Autore: tra scrittori classici e poeti moderni’ si svolgerà il 15 apri... more Il seminario 'Traduzioni d’Autore: tra scrittori classici e poeti moderni’ si svolgerà il 15 aprile 2019 presso la Sala Consiglio del plesso Santa Teresa dei Maschi del Dipartimento DISUM – Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro, a partire dalle ore 14.30.

“Optanda erat oblivio” Selection and Loss in Ancient and Medieval Literature (University of Bari,... more “Optanda erat oblivio” Selection and Loss in Ancient and Medieval Literature (University of Bari, 20th-21st December 2018)

Confirmed keynote speaker: Tiziano DORANDI (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - Paris)

Prolepsis Association is delighted to announce its third international postgraduate conference whose theme will be the mechanisms of selection and loss in ancient and Medieval literary and historical texts. “Optanda erat oblivio” Seneca writes in benef. 5. 25. 2, referring to Tiberius’ wish for forgetfulness. We would like to use this quotation as a starting point for a discussion on the vast number of issues related to memory and oblivion in ancient and Medieval texts. This year the conference will be particularly keen on - but not limited to - the following topics:
● Palimpsests.
● Virtual palimpsests (intertextuality, texts survived in translations, paraphrases and quotations).
● Material losses in the manuscript tradition.
● Selection criteria.
● Places of loss and finding.
● Damnatio memoriae.
● Fragmentary literature.
● Lost known texts.
● Book circulation (destiny of books).
● Found unknown texts.
● Found known texts.
● Texts survived through pseudo-epigraphy.
● Ancient witnesses of selection and loss.

Scientific Workshop organized by the Postgraduate Student Association, Faculty of Philology, Nati... more Scientific Workshop organized by the Postgraduate Student Association, Faculty of Philology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, in collaboration with Prolepsis.

Mercoledì 21 Marzo 2018 Scuola Superiore di Studi Umanistici (Sala Rossa) Via Marsala 26, Bologna... more Mercoledì 21 Marzo 2018 Scuola Superiore di Studi Umanistici (Sala Rossa) Via Marsala 26, Bologna 9.00-9.15 Saluti iniziali del Comitato organizzativo ANNA BUSETTO (Rodopis) 9.15-10.45 I sessione: "Riscritture poetiche" Chair: LUISA FIZZAROTTI (Alma Mater Studiorum -Università di Bologna) VICTORIA BERGBAUER (Université Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne) Pain in Isaac Rosenberg's reception of Homer's Iliad JOSIE RAE (University of Edinburgh) Challenging 'The Old Lie' in British First World War poetry on the Eastern Front ROBERTO BATISTI (Alma Mater Studiorum -Università di Bologna) «In un mondo diverso / illuminato dagli ordigni». Riscritture poetiche della Grande Guerra fra Tardoantico e XXI secolo 10.45-11.15 Keynote speech: Prof. MARCO MONDINI (Università di Padova e Istituto Storico Italo-Germanico) Fratelli in armi. Modelli dell'eroico nella letteratura di guerra italiana 11.15-11.45 Pausa caffè 11.45-13.15 II sessione: "Versi latini e retorica augustea" Chair: FRANCESCO BOCCASILE (Università degli Studi di Roma Tre) FABRIZIO PETORELLA (Università degli Studi di Roma Tre) Non posse suaviter vivi secundum Horatium: Bertolt Brecht e la retorica augustea MARCO CRISTINI (Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa) Bella tonant totumque quatit discordia mundum: le opere latine sulla Grande Guerra NICHOLAS DE SUTTER (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) Dicam horrida bella: on Classicists writing Latin war poetry 13.15-14.30 Pausa pranzo 14.30-16.00 III sessione: "Politica, Patriottismo, Pacifismo" Chair: ALESSANDRO RONCAGLIA (Alma Mater Studiorum -Università di Bologna) ANDREA GIANNOTTI (Durham University) La 'tortura del patriottismo' e le Troiane di Euripide durante la Grande Guerra: Bertrand Russell a teatro ROSSANA ZETTI (University of Edinburgh) L'Antigone di Walter Hasenclever (1917): un'icona politica e pacifista RAFFAELE TONDINI (Università degli Studi di Padova) I pericoli della pace: Schwartz e Wilamowitz 16.00-16.30 Pausa caffè 16.30-18.00

L’origine della violenza e della paura. Commento a Lucrezio, De rerum natura 5, 1105-1349 Studia Classica et Mediaevalia, Band 29, Nordhausen 2020 ISBN 978-3-95948-487-9 527 Seiten, 2020

1109 praesidium … perfugium: l'etimologia di praesidium è riportata da Varro Ling. 5, 90 (praesid... more 1109 praesidium … perfugium: l'etimologia di praesidium è riportata da Varro Ling. 5, 90 (praesidium dictum qui extra castra praesidebant in loco aliquo, quo tutior regio esset), che lo ricollega al lessico militare, in particolare alla difesa. Perfugium è anche sinonimo di praesidium, (cf. ThlL X, 1414, 59 ss.) ma indica generalmente anche un posto in cui rifugiarsi, in senso metaforico, come nel v. 1186, perfugium sibi habebant omnia divis tradere. 1110 et pecus atque agros: il v. 1110, formato dalla simmetrica coppia allitterante di sostantivi/verbi et pecus atque agros Divisere atque DeDere presenta una corruzione nei mss. La soluzione che propone Bailey mi pare la più giusta (la formula si ritrova anche in 'incipit' nel v. 1291), in luogo di et pecudes atque agros e et pecudes et agros, quest'ultima riportata dai mss. Itali. I perfetti divisere e dedere, in forma sincopata, indicano l'organizzazione economica e sociale di tipo agro-pastorale e una divisione dei beni, le terre e il bestiame, secondo il criterio stabilito di bellezza, forza e intelligenza. Pertanto, i re fondarono città, posero sulle rocche le loro dimore, divisero le terre e gli armenti fra coloro che si distinguevano per facies, vis e ingenium. Il v. 1111 pro facie cuiusque et viribus ingenioque potrebbe far pensare ad una distribuzione quasi 'discendente' dei beni: ovvero dalla massima

Trends in Classics - Supplementary Volumes, 2022

Chance, in addition to the unavoidable ambiguity caused by time, is one of the main guilty partie... more Chance, in addition to the unavoidable ambiguity caused by time, is one of the main guilty parties in the transmission of ancient texts – or lack thereof. However, the same cannot be said for what concerns the mechanisms of selection and loss of historical and literary memory, where the voluntary awareness of obscuring is often part of a precise aim, thus leading the cultural memory of a literate society to become fragmented. The present volume explores the devices and criteria of selection and loss in Ancient and Medieval texts and the subsequent fragmentation of such literature, but it also addresses the questions of the damnatio memoriae, of literary strategies such as reticence and omission, as well as of known texts deemed lost but re-found thanks to state-of-the-art methods in digitization. The many and diverse nuances of the concepts of omission, selection, and loss throughout Ancient and Medieval literature and history are illustrated through a number of case studies in the four sections of this volume, each examining a different facet of the topic: ‘Mechanisms and criteria of textual loss and selection’, ‘Lost texts re-discovered’, ‘Voluntary omissions and desire for oblivion’, and ‘Re-working the known’.

Nei versi oggetto del presente commento a De rerum natura 5, 1105-1349, Lucrezio si occupa della ... more Nei versi oggetto del presente commento a De rerum natura 5, 1105-1349, Lucrezio si occupa della Kulturgeschichte dei primi uomini: dalla nascita delle forme di governo, delle leggi, all’origine della religione, fino alla scoperta dei metalli e delle arti belliche. I versi costituiscono una sezione unitaria e ben definita, dal punto di vista dei contenuti della lingua e dello stile, in cui prevalgono sostanzialmente due temi: la violenza e la paura. In un universo dove gli uomini sono soltanto una parte del tutto, la rivalità competitiva e autolesionistica per la corsa al potere e gli scopi creativi e distruttivi della tecnologia spesso finiscono per trasformare il progresso tecnico in un regresso etico.

Beiträge zur Altertumskunde 375, 2019

This book offers the hint for a new reflection on ancient textual transmission and editorial prac... more This book offers the hint for a new reflection on ancient textual transmission and editorial practices in Antiquity.In the first section, it retraces the first steps of the process of ancient writing and editing. The reader will discover how the book is both a material object and a metaphorical personification, material or immaterial. The second section will focus on corpora of Greek texts, their formation, and their paratextual apparatus. Readers will explore various issues dealing with the mechanisms that are at the basis of the assembling of ancient Greek texts, but great attention will also be given to the role of ancient scholarly work. The third section shows how texts have two levels of authorship: the author of the text, and the scribe who copies the text. The scribe is not a medium, but plays a crucial role in changing the text. This section will focus on the protagonists of some interesting cases of textual transmission, but also on
the books they manufactured or kept in the libraries, and on the words they
engraved on stones. Therefore, the fresh voices of the contributors of this book, offer new perspectives on established research fields dealing with textual criticism.

Futuro Classico, N. 5 (2019)

Per limina. Printed Paratexts and the Intellectual Networks of Humanism (15th–18th c.), University of Innsbruck 6-7 December 2024

‘Siempre la lengua fue compañera del Imperio’. In the introduction to his Castilian grammar, publ... more ‘Siempre la lengua fue compañera del Imperio’. In the introduction to his Castilian grammar, published in the same year of the ‘discovery’ of the Americas (1492), the Spanish humanist Elio Antonio de Nebrija wrote these prophetic words. A few years earlier, in the dedication of his Introductiones Latinae (c. 1487), Nebrija lamented the poor knowledge of Latin among Spaniards: like Lorenzo Valla, he argued that Latin was the foundation of all forms of learning.
This paper explores Antonio de Nebrija’s preface to Peter Martyr d’Anghiera’s De Orbe Novo Decades (Alcalá de Henares, 1516), focusing on how Nebrija, as Martyr’s friend and editor of the first three Decades, establishes a framework for the work. Attention is also given to Martyr’s proem, which precedes Nebrija’s praefatio in the 1516 edition.
In his preface, Nebrija laments how significant works often remain overshadowed by inferior ones. Martyr’s proem, addressed to King Charles V and preceding Nebrija’s praefatio, offers an overview of the Decades, recounting Atlantic voyages and New World discoveries while subtly alluding to translatio imperii—the transfer of power and knowledge central to Spanish imperial ideology during Ferdinand and Isabella’s reign. Drawing on the Aeneid, Martyr depicts Columbus as a modern Aeneas and Spanish colonization as an epic journey.
Nebrija’s preface situates Martyr’s historical and cultural contributions within the intellectual currents of Renaissance humanism, underlining the enduring significance of Latin as the medium for chronicling these transformative events. This study highlights how Nebrija’s framing enhances the intellectual legacy of Martyr’s work, bridging the New World discoveries and Renaissance thought, ensuring their lasting influence.

When did the act of ‘inventing’ America begin? This paper will analyze the first response of two ... more When did the act of ‘inventing’ America begin? This paper will analyze the first response of two European humanists to the discovery of the New World, focusing on the eleven letters (from 1494 to 1498) from Peter Martyr d’Anghiera, the court historian of the Spanish kingdom, addressed to Pomponius Laetus, about Columbus’ voyages to the Americas. The letters are a crucial testimony, neglected by historians and classical scholars for decades. Martyr never visited the lands he describes and frequently refers to classical and Christian traditions, through analogies and imagery from ancient myths (the ‘Golden Age’, the Laestrygonians, the Cyclops). The contrast between the corrupting influence of greed in society and the pure state of nature is a recurring theme. While Italian humanists often associated the ‘Golden Age’ myth with ancient Rome, other intellectuals, including Las Casas, and followed by Bembo, More, Montaigne, Voltaire, Rousseau, linked it with the discovery of the Americas. Martyr’s Classical and Christian background shaped his imagination of the New World, in an act of literary creation. This discussion will adopt an interdisciplinary methodology, intertwining historical and literary analyses, assessing Martyr’s perspectives within the broader discourse of early modern European intellectual history.

SCS Chicago, 2024

Peter Martyr of Anghiera has always been classified as a humanist, but more recently as an 'anthr... more Peter Martyr of Anghiera has always been classified as a humanist, but more recently as an 'anthropologist', due to the originality of his thought and the novelty of his position on various aspects of history and culture of his time and on humankind. Both in De Orbe Novo Decades (1530) and in the Opus Epistolarum (1488-1525) a 'New Humanism' comes to light, which sees in the novelty of the encounter with the 'Other' a way to reconsider the traditional canons of human values.

The development of the philosophy of history from antiquity to modernity has always been characte... more The development of the philosophy of history from antiquity to modernity has always been characterized in terms of progress. According to Seneca, progress is valuable only if philosophy leads it to wisdom, therefore philosophy is the only way to understand the cosmos and the theory of everything. The ingenium itself, produced by sapientia, is a gift given by the gods, just like philosophy (Sen. Ep. 89; 90), without which men loses their inner balance and get used to contracting bad habits and to exaggeratedly showing their selfish side. History tells the wrong facts (Sen. NQ Praef. 3, 5-10) and Seneca attacks the way of writing historiography, that exalts the great leaders and their atrocities (NQ 3; Ep. 91). While the natural sciences seek to generalize and identify truths of universal validity, historicism aims at individualization.
The goal of this paper is to analyse Seneca Epistles 89, 90, 91, through a close reading of selected parts of the letters, focusing on Seneca’s thought on the usefulness of a universal history of mankind only if inserted in the natural and environmental history of the world, which will also be resumed in various passages of the Naturales Quaestiones. Every aspect of the human being, inserted into the macrocosm of nature, the earth, and the universe, serves to rediscover the causes of the events. Moreover, Epistle 90 has attracted much attention and this has often focused on attempts to reconstruct from Seneca’s argument the views both of Posidonius and of the earlier Stoic philosophers, especially through the Quellenforschung and intertextuality. Seneca acknowledges his debt to other thinkers but, at the same time, insists on his originality. My analysis will help to answer these following questions: how are the topics organised in the letters? How much have the traditional patterns of the earlier Kulturgeschichte influenced the structure of the letters, the impressions and the experiences or re-experiences of the readers? In conclusion, I will devote a particular attention on Seneca’s rhetorical strategies of argumentation and on the role and the importance of philosophy in narrating the history of mankind.

‘Archaeology’ signaled a story or narrative. It covered all kinds of treatments of early history,... more ‘Archaeology’ signaled a story or narrative. It covered all kinds of treatments of early history, oral and written, ranging from genealogies and foundation stories to more general forms of mythography. It may be wondered if archaeologies were a lost sub-genre of historiography, or if they were the primordial form of narrating history. To confirm this latter thesis, scholars have persisted in considering foundation (ktisis) poetry to be an authentic archaic genre, but it has been shown how they did not function as an autonomous genre in the archaic period (Dougherty 1994; Payen 2010).
Starting from these premises, the aim of this paper is to assess the two categories in which the ‘archaeologies’ belong to, by providing a survey on the topic through selected passages. ‘Archaeologies’ can be (a) prefaces to a work or a single book (historical monographs), digressions, arguments in direct speeches, which help to introduce a topic and explain the origins of a story, a people, a war, with elements of cultural histories; (b) openings of works of universal history (attested by the titles of the works, called archaiologiai). The extracts from universal or annalistic histories are useful to identify the arguments of the archaeologies as ‘literary artefacts’ (Rood 2015), constructed ‘just like a forensic speech’ (Wiedemann 1990), but this can also be true for example for the digression on the history of Athens in the Panegyric of Isocrates, or for Sallust’s Catiline and Cicero’s De re publica 1, 70; 2, 20. Archaeology as a ‘literary artefact’ seems to be programmatic and preparatory to the presentation of a ‘worthy’ topic. It will be asked at the end how ancient authors dealt with themes in archaeology concerning the philosophy of history, the possible teleological purposes and the interpretation of the past with hindsight.

Video on
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rO6eQ4jRrUI&t=1552s

Sebastiano Vassalli in his historical fantasy novel Un infinito numero (1999) offers a new interp... more Sebastiano Vassalli in his historical fantasy novel Un infinito numero (1999) offers a new interpretation of the Vita Donatiana: Virgil wants to destroy the Aeneid not because it is incomplete and imperfect, but because it was too integrated in the Augustan regime’s propaganda. This fanciful revisionist interpretation of Vassalli was certainly influenced by the ‘pessimistic’ reading of the Aeneid [(the Harvard school, see Parry (1963), Clausen (1964) and Putnam (1965)]. According to his Virgil, the Aeneid tells a lie about the origins and identity of Rome, discovered during a journey to Etruria. Maecenas, Virgil and the Greek slave Timodemo (the narrator) find out the secret of the origins of the Roman lineage, what the Etruscans did not want to write: the Lydians, the progenitors of the Etruscans, led by Aeneas, were violent invaders. Virgil is ultimately desperate: he wrote a fake story in the Aeneid.
Starting from this necessary premise on the novel, my paper will focus on the narratological and stylistic analysis of Chapter 5, ‘i Rasna’, and in particular on the narrative techniques used to tell the archaiología of Rome. Vassalli inserts an arcane and mysterious dimension in the story of the origins, intertwining the Trojan legend with the mysterious Etruscan people, who have left no written literature. Un infinito numero is above all a reflection on history as ‘an eternal return’ (the Ouroboros in Nietzsche’s Thus spoke Zarathustra), on the value of memory and on the identity of writing and death. This consideration on memory and writing is not too dissimilar from Plato’s tale in Tim. 22a-c: the story about Atlantis reveals not only the secret of Athens’ prestigious past, but also the irremediable shortage of Greek memory. The relationship with the remote and unknowable past ends to generate a fracture in collective memory.

In 1973 an integral survey of history was imperative, but this task presented formidable problems... more In 1973 an integral survey of history was imperative, but this task presented formidable problems of both selection and presentation. Any account of anything is bound to be selective. The human intellect has not the capacity for comprehending the sum of things in a single panoramic view. Selection is unavoidable, but it is also inevitably arbitrary (…). In the present narrative, I have refrained from giving to the Western civilization and its antecedents the excessive prominence that has been given to them customarily in Western surveys of world history, but I have also tried to avoid falling into the opposite mistake of giving less to the West and its antecedents than their due. (…) The narrational form of presentation and the analytical and comparative form have their own distinctive advantages and drawbacks. To give a comprehensive bird's-eye view of mankind's history in narrational form has been my objective in the present book."

Laut Tacitus und Cassius Dio ist das Bild des Tiberius mit Verstellung und Heuchelei verbunden. A... more Laut Tacitus und Cassius Dio ist das Bild des Tiberius mit Verstellung und Heuchelei verbunden. Ausgehend von dem letzten der anonymen elegischen Couplets, die Sueton Tib. 59 im Zusammenhang von Tiberius' Grausamkeit und Ausschweifung zitiert (regnavit sanguine multo, ad regnum quisquis venit ab exilio), versuche ich in diesem Vortrag, neues Licht auf die Interpretation eines verwandten Aspekts der Persönlichkeit des Tiberius zu werfen, der durch Suetons Bericht betont wird: Tiberius' Misanthropie, sein selbstauferlegtes Exil und seine daraus resultierende Selbstdiskreditierung. In meinem Vortrag konzentriere ich mich auf Suetons narratives Verfahren, bei den psychologischen Aspekten der Persönlichkeit des Tiberius zu verweilen. Im Vergleich zu anderen literarischen Quellen hat Sueton den Vorteil, Tiberius' Biographie beginnend mit dessen Kindheit zu schreiben, die durch Unglücklichsein, Verlust und Entsagung sowie eine ständige rebellische Flucht aus der Verantwortung gekennzeichnet ist, was noch im Amt des Kaiser zu wiederholtem selbstauferlegten Exil führt. Ein klares Zeugnis der Selbstdiskreditierung des Tiberius gibt Suet. Tib. 67, ähnlich Tac. Ann. 6, 6, 1, sowie ibid. 26-28. Eine genaue Lektüre dieser Passagen wird der Hauptteil meiner Präsentation sein.

Beiträge zur Altertumskunde, 404, 2022

Chance, in addition to the unavoidable ambiguity caused by time, is one of the main guilty partie... more Chance, in addition to the unavoidable ambiguity caused by time, is one of the main guilty parties in the transmission of ancient texts – or lack thereof. However, the same cannot be said for what concerns the mechanisms of selection and loss of historical and literary memory, where the voluntary awareness of obscuring is often part of a precise aim, thus leading the cultural memory of a literate society to become fragmented. The present volume explores the devices and criteria of selection and loss in Ancient and Medieval texts and the subsequent fragmentation of such literature, but it also addresses the questions of the damnatio memoriae, of literary strategies such as reticence and omission, as well as of known texts deemed lost but re-found thanks to state-of-the-art methods in digitization. The many and diverse nuances of the concepts of omission, selection, and loss throughout Ancient and Medieval literature and history are illustrated through a number of case studies in the four sections of this volume, each examining a different facet of the topic: ‘Mechanisms and criteria of textual loss and selection’, ‘Lost texts re-discovered’, ‘Voluntary omissions and desire for oblivion’, and ‘Re-working the known’.

Prolepsis’ 4th International Conference 19th-20th December 2019 Università degli Studi di Bari “A... more Prolepsis’ 4th International Conference 19th-20th December 2019 Università degli Studi di Bari “Aldo Moro” Keynote speaker: Therese Fuhrer (LMU München)

Prolepsis’ 5th International Conference 17th-18th December 2020, postponed to 20th-21st December ... more Prolepsis’ 5th International Conference 17th-18th December 2020, postponed to 20th-21st December 2021 Università degli Studi di Bari “Aldo Moro” Keynote speaker: Prof. Patrick Finglass (University of Bristol)

Archaeology in antiquity refers to various treatments of early history, it is the ancient history... more Archaeology in antiquity refers to various treatments of early history, it is the ancient history itself. This talk examines how Virgil's Aeneid and Cicero's De Re Publica serve as works of ancient history that convey Rome's origins and purpose. An essential feature of these accounts and their structure is their didactic function, in which prophecies, omens, and visions play a central narrative role. Special focus is given to Virgil's teleological worldview in selected passages of the Aeneid and to Cicero's emphasis on civic duty and alignment with divine will in the Somnium Scipionis.

This talk explores Peter Martyr d'Anghiera's De Orbe Novo Decades (1530), focusing on his account... more This talk explores Peter Martyr d'Anghiera's De Orbe Novo Decades (1530), focusing on his account of the fall of Tenochtitlan, a central event in the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire. Appointed as a court historian by Spanish monarchs Ferdinand, Isabella, and later Charles V, Martyr utilized sources like Christopher Columbus' reports and Hernán Cortés' letters to construct his narrative, despite never visiting the New World. Martyr's use of classical historiography, drawing analogies between contemporary and ancient historical events and protagonists, and his choice of Latin, which incorporates elements from Spanish and indigenous languages like Nahuatl, lend authority and universality to his work. The discussion will explore Martyr's Christian Providentialism, interpreting the fall of Tenochtitlan as part of a divine plan, and highlight themes of divine Providence, duty to God, and loyalty to the King found in both Martyr's narrative and Cortés' letters. Through an interdisciplinary approach incorporating historical, philological, and literary analyses, it will be assessed Martyr's impact on early modern historiography and indigenous narratives.

Ausgehend von einer historischen und lexikographischen Definition von archaiologíai, origines, an... more Ausgehend von einer historischen und lexikographischen Definition von archaiologíai, origines, antiquitates soll in diesem Vortrag erörtert werden, wie und warum 'Archäologien' viel mit rhetorischen Reden gemeinsam haben, wenn sie als Vorworte historiographischer Werke und politischer Abhandlungen verfasst werden. Eine kritisch-genaue Lektüre ausgewählter antiker literaturkritischer Quellen hilft, den Einfluss der rhetorischen Schulung auf die Geschichtsschreibung zu beleuchten und zu zeigen, dass die 'Archäologien' als eines der literarischsten und rhetorischsten Elemente des historiographischen Textes betrachtet werden können.

Ethnogeschichte der Neuen Welt erzählen. Philosophie der Geschichte und historische Methoden in D... more Ethnogeschichte der Neuen Welt erzählen. Philosophie der Geschichte und historische Methoden in De Orbe Novo Decades von Petrus Martyr d'Anghiera.

Friday 3rd February, 4pm CEST. For info and Zoom link, please register via e-mail at prolepsis.n... more Friday 3rd February, 4pm CEST.
For info and Zoom link, please register via e-mail at prolepsis.network@gmail.com

Prolepsis Research Network is happy to invite you to the sixth and final meeting of our online se... more Prolepsis Research Network is happy to invite you to the sixth and final meeting of our online seminar series L'editore di testi greci e latini al lavoro.

This will be a special lecture by Prof. Giovanni Benedetto (University of Milan), on
Tradurre filosofia contemporanea in latino: il Cambridge Platonist Ralph Cudworth nella versione di J. L. Mosheim (1733, 1773²)

Throughout the series we have encouraged reflection on the tools, methodologies, and approaches employed by classical philologists today. With this special lecture we will broaden our perspective, so as to include considerations on the history of classical studies, focusing on a truly unique moment for both the reception of ancient philosophy and Neo-Latin literature.

The meeting will take place on Thursday 20th June 2024, 4 pm CEST.

All are welcome! Please note that the working language of this event will be primarily, but not exclusively Italian.

To receive the link, please send an email at prolepsis.network@gmail.com.

Prolepsis Research Network is delighted to invite you to the third meeting of our seminar series ... more Prolepsis Research Network is delighted to invite you to the third meeting of our seminar series Publishing Classics.

Our guest for this meeting will be Elda Granata, Editor at Carocci editore, who will discuss publishing classical texts with commercial publishing houses compared to academic publishers, and present Carocci's current interests and trends.

The meeting, Il punto di vista dell'editor: Carocci, will take place on May 29, at 5pm CET.

Please note that the working language of this event will be primarily Italian.
To receive the link please send an email at prolepsis.network@gmail.com.

Seminar Series - 2023/2024 (1st meeting) We are delighted to invite you to the online seminar ser... more Seminar Series - 2023/2024 (1st meeting)
We are delighted to invite you to the online seminar series “Seminari di ricerca. L’editore di testi greci e latini al lavoro”.
Tiziano Dorandi (Centre Jean Pépin UMR 8230/CNRS/ENS/PSL) will open this series, introducing us to his work on Stobaeus during the seminar “Verso una nuova edizione dei libri 3-4 dell’Antologia dello Stobeo”. The seminar will take place on Thursday 12th October 2023, 4 pm CEST.

All are welcome! Please note that the working language of this event will be Italian. To receive the link, please send an email to prolepsis.network@gmail.com