The first part of the course will be devoted to Alberti’s Autobiography. This text will provide a starting point to exploring the literary production of the humanist, that includes celebrated vernacular works such as the four books On the family and the De pictura. The second part of the course will focus on the analysis of some of the Intercenales, alongside pages of other latin Albertian works such as the Momus and the Apologi centum.
L.B. Alberti, Autobiografia e altre opere latine, a cura di L. Chines e A. Severi, Milano, Rizzoli, 2012.
Leon Battista Alberti, De pictura (redazione volgare), a cura di Lucia Bertolini, Firenze, Edizioni Polistampa, 2011.
Leon Battista Alberti, I libri della famiglia, A cura di Ruggiero Romano e Alberto Tenenti. Nuova edizione a cura di Francesco Furlan, Torino, Einaudi, 1994.
Lucia Bertolini, Alberti e le “humanae litterae”, in Leon Battista Alberti e l’architettura, a cura di Massimo Bulgarelli et alii, Cinisello Balsamo, Milano, Silvana Editoriale, 2006, pp. 20-31.
Martin L. McLaughlin, Leon Battista Alberti. La vita, l’umanesimo, le opere letterarie, Firenze, Olschki, 2016 (cap. I: La vita dell’Alberti. Dall’autobiografia al ritratto di Burckhardt, pp. 3-16 e cap. III: Alberti e la nuova ricezione dell’umanesimo rinascimentale, pp. 41-69).
L.B. Alberti, Intercenales, a cura di R. Cardini, Firenze, Polistampa, 2022 (with its Introduction).
R. Cardini, Mosaici. Il ‘nemico’ dell’Alberti, Roma, Bulzoni, 1990, pp. 1-50.
R. Cardini, Paralipomeni all’Alberti umorista, in «Moderni e Antichi», I, 2003, pp. 73-86.
Learning Objectives
The course has the following objectives:
- Knowledge: at the end of the course the student will be familiar with some of the main aspects of the figure and work of Leon Battista Alberti, with special attention to the peculiar characteristics of his vernacular and latin humanism. The student is made aware of the basic problems of humanistic philology and the peculiar characteristics of the critical edition of similar texts.
- Applied comprehension skills: at the end of the course the student is able to historically contextualize the figure and work of Alberti, with particular attention to the philological study of the texts; he/she can read and interpret the proposed writings from a thematic, historical, rhetorical, stylistic, linguistic point of view; he /she can consciously use critical editions and master the tools necessary for commenting on texts.
- Making judgements: By the end of the course, the student will be capable of critically elaborating the content discussed in class.
- Communication skills: By the end of the course, the student will clearly and effectively discuss the topics dealt with in the individual lectures, applying appropriate specialist vocabulary; he/she establishes a fruitful exchange with teachers and other students; he/she appropriately comments on the topics treated during the course.
- Learning skills: by the end of the course, the student will have acquired methodological skills and strategies for the study of literature and the interpretation of texts.
Prerequisites
A basic knowledge of Latin is required.
Teaching Methods
Lectures, also with the support of IT tools. Regular attendance and active participation are recommended.
Further information
If in doubt or in case of problems, please contact the lecturer. During the lectures other indications concerning further bibliography will be given; additional texts and materials relating to the subject matter will be provided in PDF or photocopy: knowledge of this material is necessary for the examination.
Non-attending students must contact the teacher at the beginning of the course to agree upon a specific program. Disabled students or students with learning disabilities are invited to contact the "UNIFI Include" desk in order to set up the course in the most appropriate manner for their specific needs. The agreed measures must be shared with the teacher in due time.
Type of Assessment
The oral exam will be divided into three parts: reading, translation, contextualization and commenting of passages addressed specifically in class; questions about the author and his works to be prepared independently; questions concerning philological methodology. If an appropriate certification is presented, students with disabilities and students with Specific Learning Disorders, those unable for health reasons to attend the examination as scheduled, may negotiate an alternative type of examination with the teachers.
Course program
Ever since Jakob Burckhardt’s Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, Alberti’s latin Autobiography has been crucial to provide access to the life and works of the Italian humanist. The first part of the course will examine this celebrated self-portrait, with particular regard to its date of composition, symbolic meaning and literary sources. Furthermore, starting from the references made to them in the text of the Autobiography, it will be possible to discuss the content and composition history of two of the most important vernacular works by Alberti, such as the four books On the family and the De pictura, the first modern treatise on painting.
The second part of the course includes the reading and analysis of some of the Intercenales, which will be studied in their sources and models, in their relationship with other Albertian writings (in particular the Momus and the Apologi centum), and in the philological problems that their text present. The aim is to show their singularity in the panorama of humanistic literature and to highlight their character as a 'satirical' and 'comic' work.