Italian language, grammar & dictionaries
More general subjects:
Languages and Cross-Cultural Exchanges in Renaissance Italy
Although much work has been done in the field of Renaissance Studies at present there is no book which offers a comparative overview of the linguistic interaction between Renaissance Italy and the wider world. The present volume is intended to fill this void representing the first-ever collection of essays that deal with multiple types of language contact and cross-cultural exchanges in and with respect to Renaissance Italy (1300‒1600). We bring diverse disciplinary perspectives together: literary scholars historians and linguists with different regional expertise; we argue for multilingualism and language contact as products of a period of dynamic change which cannot be fully grasped through a single framework. The contributions present a variety of case-studies by often cross-fertilising their approaches with other disciplinary lenses. This book aims to provide a comprehensive picture of a truly global Renaissance Italy where languages textual traditions and systems of knowledge from different geographical areas either combined or clashed. It takes a fresh approach to the history of late medieval and early modern Italy by focusing on East/West linguistic and cultural encounters transmission of ideas and texts multilingualism in literature (various genres and various forms of multilingualism) translation practices reception/adaptation of new knowledge transculturalism and literary exchanges and the relationship between languages and language varieties.
Plauto e il Castrum Poenarum
[Plautus and the Castrum Poenarum]
In Plautus’ fragment quoted by Servius in the commentary on Virgil Aeneid VI 774 the reading Poenarum may be retained in lieu of the correction Poenorum preferred by the more recent editors of both Servius and Plautus. The expression Castrum Poenarum is defended through a tight network of references to both Latin and Greek authors culminating in the expression Castrum … Furiarum employed by Cicero in a poetical translation seen as a possible parallel to Plautus’ Castrum Poenarum. This may have been part of a witty exchange in reference to some ‘hellish place’.
Appunti di etimologia greca e semitica dello sciclitano. Sull’etimologia di alcuni grecismi e semitismi in nomi, antroponimi e toponimi attestati nel territorio di Scicli (Sicilia)
[Notes on Greek and Semitic Etymology of the Sciclitano Dialect: About the Etymology of Some Hellenisms and Semitisms in Names Anthroponyms and Toponyms Attested in Scicli (Sicily)]
This study aims to analyze and report in a single text a set of terms (anthroponyms toponyms and common nouns) of the Sciclitano dialect - one of the different forms in which Sicilian language manifests itself - whose etymology dates back to terms of Greek origin (classical Byzantine and Neo-Greek) and Semitic (Arabic and to a lesser extent Hebrew) as evidence of the linguistic layers that have settled in the dialect from the origins down into the course of the Middle Ages and beyond under various dominations and are still present in the territory. As far as surnames are concerned the Arabic ones attested in recent decades due to the phenomenon of immigration have not been taken into consideration. Where possible epichoric peculiarities have been taken into account (especially for toponyms) and an etymological reconstruction has been attempted even in the absence of archival documents always having regard to the history of Scicli (and the County of Modica to which it belonged) and various sources handed down by local scholars and also to the oral tradition. Some of the items analyzed are present in other parts of Sicily while others are found only locally and on the whole they represent a part worthy of notice and study.
Appunti per la semantica di vicarius (dall’età arcaica alla prima età imperiale)
[Notes on the Semantics of vicarius (from the Archaic Period to the Early Imperial Age)]
This article analyzes the semantic development of vicarius between the third cent. bc and the second cent. ad with the purpose of linking the most ancient technical meanings of the word to its subsequent nontechnical meanings (starting with Cicero). While the most common technical including juridical meanings of vicarius (‘substitute’ for a servus and in an official function a ‘proxy’) are regularly listed in lexicons the meaning of vicarius as a ‘sacrificial substitute’ in a magical-religious context has so far received little attention. This meaning appears in a devotio of the third cent. bc reported by Macr. Sat. 3.9.9-13. Most of the occurrences of vicarius in the period under consideration actually seem linked to this last meaning which is taken up and multiplied by school declamation. Indeed vicarius becomes a terminus technicus specific to declamation referring to acts of self-sacrifice that commonly occur in school controversiae.
Su un’ekphrasis nell’apologia di Apuleio. Il mercurio di un novello Socrate
[On an ekphrasis in Apuleius’ Apologia: The Mercury of a New Socrates]
This research starts from the ekphrasis of a statuette of Mercury which Apuleius exhibits in a court of law (apol. 63). Then the description is compared to other ekphraseis whose subject is male beauty. Here we can understand the rhetorical technique with which Apuleius builds up his descriptions. After a starting focus on his hair his speech moves on to Apuleius self-portrait through which the author confirms his defensive strategy aiming at his assimilation with the figure of Socrates.
Tito come Enea. Un esempio di intertestualità virgiliana in Svetonio (Tit. 5, 3)
[Titus as Aeneas. A Case of Vergilian Intertextuality at Suet. Tit. 5.3.]
This paper suggests that the line uttered by Titus to greet his father at the return from the Jewish war as reported by Suetonius (Tit. 5.3 veni … pater veni) alludes to the encounter between Aeneas and Anchises in Virgil (Aen. VI 687-689). In all likelihood Titus wished to refute his alleged intention to establish a kingdom for himself in the East by claiming a pietas towards his own father non unlike Aeneas’ pietas towards Anchises.
Note ad una nuova edizione delle Baccanti di Euripide
[Some Notes on a New Edition of Euripides’ Bacchae]
A newly published Italian edition of Euripides’ Bacchae (G. Guidorizzi Euripide Baccanti Fondazione Lorenzo Valla Mondadori Milano 2020) offers the chance for a new confrontation with the main literary source of Dionysism: a still problematic text full of unsolved issues which the editor addresses with respect for the manuscript tradition even if he occasionally accepts some old emendations embodied by inertia also in other modern editions. An extensive commentary combines mythologic and literary explanations with contribution from the anthropological field. Guidorizzi’s translation has some weak points while a new colometry (proposed by L. Lomiento) allows a different interpretation of some loci. Both translation and commentary partly reproduce those of Guidorizzi’s previous edition of the Bacchae.
La via d’uscita di Shakespeare dalla dannazione del tempo
[Shakespeare’s Way Out from the Curse of Time]
The storyline of this romantic play one of Shakespeare’s last works is twofold: the first part centers on the jealousy on the part of the king of Sicily whose wife is purportedly - but falsely - loved by the king of Bohemia. The latter is able to escape the other king’s anger while the queen falls down apparently dead. The second part takes place sixteen years later when the king’s daughter whose traces had since been lost and is therefore aptly called Perdita suddenly reappears as in love with the king of Bohemia’s son in spite of this king’s fierce enmity. At this point thanks to a sort of renewed checking of the plot the situation unravels especially as far as queen Hermione is concerned. The latter has been kept alive by her lady-in-waiting an uncompromising supporter of the values of marriage in the wise of a work of art in a sort of museum.
L’ossessione della tortura in Seneca. Una falla nella resistenza del sapiens?
[Obsession with Torture in Seneca: A Chink in the sapiens’ Endurance?]
Seneca’s emphasis on torture which is supposed to be rooted in stylistic (the taste for the macabre at the time) and historical-personal factors (the real risk of being tortured for members of the elite under the Principate) is explained in this article in a new way based on the Epicurean maxim - adopted by Seneca - that pain if acute is short and if chronic is mild. Indeed torture by deliberately inflicting severe and prolonged pain and even depriving the victim of the possibility of suicide breaks the reassuring picture of the sapiens’ pain tolerance and puts him at risk of failure.
Deméter en el Papiro de Berlín BKT 5.1, pp. 7-18, no I 2
[Demeter in the Berlin Papyrus BKT 5.1 pp. 7-18 no I 2]
The versus of the Berlin Papyrus BKT 5.1 pp. 7-18 no I 2 dated to the second-first bce comprises the commentary of an ancient Orphic poem about the rape of Persephone and her search by her mother Demeter. The very fragmentary text contains a prose account in which there are some quotations of a poem attributed to Orpheus but very similar to the Homeric Hymn to Demeter. The hymn has traditionally served as the main reference for the study of the papyrus but the myth of Persephone was very popular in Antiquity so the papyrus text may reflect other traditions such as the Sicilian or the Orphic ones. In the present paper I compare the role of Demeter in the papyrus with her role in other versions of the myth in order to examine whether these versions are directly or indirectly reflected in the papyrus and to what extent they can serve as a support to reconstruct the fragmentary text. Firstly I begin by recalling some data about the papyrus (date origin and editions). Secondly I speak briefly about the different versions of the rape of Persephone. And finally different episodes in which Demeter is the main agent in the papyrus are analyzed and compared with other versions. The analysis and comparison of individual episodes is essential to determine which aspects correspond to the tradition testified by the Homeric hymn which are related to other traditions such as the Sicilian one and which are found only in the Orphic one.
The Scapegoat Theme in Mythology, Stephen King, and René Girard
Mythology has undoubtedly had an inestimable influence on most modern thought art and literature. Although myths are ubiquitous and often serve as the texture of modern storytelling their manifestations and use in the works of Stephen King have largely gone unnoticed. The approach taken in this essay for is twofold in design. Firstly the essay examines myths in King’s work. These instances are reviewed not only according to content and context but also analysed through the lenses of scholarly commentary written on these passages. The second part uses the work of René Girard especially his examination of the scapegoat mechanism that was first developed in his 1972 La violence el le sacré (Paris: Grasset). This application of Girard’s ideas and theories allows for a fresh reading of King that recontextualises and reinterprets the ritual violence that humans inflict on each other as found in King. This article establishes parallels between the violence in King to those mythological stories that may shed light on shared universal and transcendent themes.
Polemiche letterarie e nazionalistiche. A proposito del “ritrovamento” del ms. Vat. Lat. 3195
[Literary and Nationalistic Disputes. About the “Rediscovery” of ms. Vat. lat. 3195]
The article reconstructs the controversies following the rediscovery in 1886 of the original manuscript of Petrarch’s Canzoniere ms. Vatican Latin 3195 in the Vatican Apostolic Library. The matter is not limited to the philological question but also affects the nationalistic aspect due to the recent taking of Rome by united Italy.
Uno storico stoicheggiante nella Roma del II sec. a.C.?
[A Stoic-oriented Historian in 2nd Century bc Rome?]
The Index Stoicorum Herculanensis (PHerc. 1018) a collection which at the columns 73-78 contains a list of Panaetius’ disciples includes a reference to a certain Πείσων who should not be identified for reasons internal to the Index and for gens Calpurnia’s political connections with the annalist L. Calpurnius Piso Frugi. Therefore the stern moral austerity due to Cato’s influence which he demonstrated during his life and showed in his historical work too cannot be partly attributed to stoic influence. Nevertheless this does not entail that he was alien to the Hellenic cultural tradition.
Un codice sconosciuto di Lucano (Pinerolo, Ms. 88, 11)
[An Unknown Manuscript of Lucan (Pinerolo) Ms. 88 11)]
The article provides a presentation and a chronological and paleographic framework of an unknown Lucan manuscript from the library of Pinerolo in Piedmont and gives an evaluation of the peculiar readings it offers.
Thornton Wilder and Italy, Part II. Wilder’s Roman Sojourn and His Works of Fiction
Thornton Wilder’s time at the American Academy in Rome was his “golden year” an inexhaustible fountain of the Muses. His two novels set in Italy The Cabala (1926) and The Ides of March (1948) derive many of their motifs from Roman history and literature as filtered through contemporary Italian personalities and social groups. His experiences in Italy and engagement with Italian culture pervade his masterpieces: Our Town (1938) and The Skin of Our Teeth (1942). His last novel Theophilus North combines Wilder’s fascination with archaeology studied at the AAR with Homeric and Italian themes. Italy for Wilder meant the full magnificence of European civilization from the Etruscans through the Renaissance to the moderns.
Ovid and Virgilian Exegesis: The Episode of Achaemenides
Virgil’s episode of Achaemenides was criticized by ancient exegesis because of its discrepancy with the episode of Polyphemus in Homer’s Odissey as we can infer from the commentaries by Servius and the Servius Danielis. These criticisms seem to have been known to Ovid who modified Virgil’s episode in his rewriting of it in the Metamorphoses in the narrative details criticized by the exegesis. It seems probable that Ovid knew a work of the so-called obtrectatores (detractors) in which Virgil’s work was criticized.
Auson. Epigr. 72 Green: i Nasonis carmina e il modello ovidiano
[Ausonius Epigr. 72 Green: “Naso’s Poems” (Nasonis carmina) and the Ovidian Model]
Auson. Epigr. 72 Green is in fact the only text of Ausonius’ Epigrams in which the poet clearly mentions Ovid’s name (Nasonis); it is also an epigram in which the references to Ovid’s Metamorphoses are manifold and built on multiple interpretative levels. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the poem’s programmatic role - pointing to Ausonius’ source of inspiration - within a specific group of epigrams with a mythological subject a group that has been plainly influenced by Ovid’s hexametric poem. My paper shows how Ausonius takes up from Ovid’s epic not only aesthetic aspects such as the representation of the body and the relationship between truth and fictionality but also poetic strategies through which the text conveys the authorial meaning to the reader and emphasizes the otherness of the speaker.
