Periodic Reporting for period 1 - InProV (An inventory of the prosimetra in vulgar tongue in the early centuries of Italian Literature (1250-1500))
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2019-09-02 al 2021-09-01
Although famous Italian works, from Dante’s Vita Nova to Boccaccio’s Comedia delle Ninfe fiorentine as well as to Sannazaro’s Arcadia and Bembo’s Asolani, are commonly defined as prosimetra, only recently this literary typology combining prose and verse appears to have gained the critics’ attention as a specific form on its own account. Yet a thorough investigation of this phenomenon has not hitherto been attempted. The main objective of the InProV project is to fill this gap by charting the tradition of the vernacular prosimetra written in the early centuries of Italian literature and providing an inventory of all these texts. Each prosimetrum included in the inventory, which will be available both in a hard copy and in an online version, will be described and examined through the same format giving information about its author, textual tradition, content, genre (lyric, pastoral, philosophical, etc.), structure, main and secondary bibliography. The inventory will allow scholars to gain a deeper understanding of the main features of the prosimetric form which in the early centuries of Italian literature represented a valid alternative to works entirely written either in prose or in verse. In future it will be also possible to update the inventory in accordance with potential new outcomes of further research in this field.
At the beginning of the outgoing phase (September-December 2019) I first explored the definition of “prosimetrum” and focused on the relevant bibliography including critical studies on classical and medieval prosimetra in Latin as well as on vernacular prosimetra. I subsequently drew up a list of about thirty works to be included in the inventory and began collecting bibliographical references for each of these. The following months (January-April) were dedicated in particular to the study of the prosimetra by Dante (Vita Nova and Convivio) and Boccaccio (Decameron and Comedia delle ninfe fiorentine). In the first case, the project benefited greatly from the expertise of Prof. Baranski, the supervisor of the partner organisation, with whom I discussed key issues concerning Dante’s works and their prosimetric form. As for Boccaccio, I attended a postgraduate course centred on the Decameron, which was taught by Prof. Christian Moevs. Alongside these main activities, from October to May I took part in all the seminars organised by the Center for Italian studies. During the summer I established a standard format of analysis to be used for the examination of the prosimetra. Due to the impact of COVID-19, the Renaissance Society of America conference which I should have attended in April 2020 was cancelled.
Since the pandemic prevented me from returning to the USA after the summer, I spent the first semester (September 2020-February 2021) working remotely in the UK. However, in the second half of the year I managed to move back to the University of Notre Dame, where I completed the outgoing phase of the fellowship. During this period, I focused primarily on the analysis of some of the prosimetra included in the inventory by using the standard format previously established.
My research was slightly delayed, above all during the first part of the year when bibliographical material could only be found through electronic resources. It was instead greatly facilitated in the second semester as I was able to have full access to the University of Notre Dame’s Hesburgh Library, though the interaction on campus with the academic staff of the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures was quite limited by the coronavirus restrictions. Regrettably, progress on the organisation of the online version of the inventory has not been as swift as I would have wished because further material is needed by the Application and Web Office of Ca’ Foscari in order to prepare the prototype of the website. I am now working on the analysis of few more texts and arranging the prepared material to a more suitable layout for the online format.
Alongside the examination of the prosimetra I attended a few online events including: the course on Italian Palaeography organised by the University of Warwick (8th October-10th December 2020); the seminars organised by the Center for Italian Studies of the University of Notre Dame, part of which was specifically dedicated to cantos I-VI of Dante’s Purgatory (September 2020 – March 2021); the weekly lectures on the Divina Commedia (From Devilry to Divinity: Readings in Dante’s Divina Commedia) organised by the Warburg Institute and the University College London (January – May 2021); the seminars “Linguistic and Literary Perspectives on Dante’s Works”, organised by the Center for Italian studies of Notre Dame in partnership with the Opera del Vocabolario Italiano (February – May 2020).
As far as the dissemination of results is concerned, in October I participated in the conference “Tra Vita nova e Convivio: Dante e il prosimetro”, organised by the Department of Literary Studies, Philology and Linguistics of the University of Milan and the Italian Department of the University of Fribourg, and delivered the paper InProV: un inventario dei prosimetri in volgare dalla “Vita Nova” di Dante agli “Asolani” di Bembo. My contribution will be included in the proceedings of the conference to be published in the open access series “Quaderni di Gargnano” at the end of 2021. In April I attended the virtual Renaissance Society of America conference: I both took part in the round table on New Technologies and Renaissance Studies discussing the paper InProV: Online inventory of the prosimetra in vulgar tongue in the early centuries of Italian Literature (1250-1500), and I chaired the panel The vernacular tradition of prosimetra in early Italian Literature (ca. 1250-1500), which I had organised. A paper proposal titled Interaction between poetry and prose in Italian vernacular prosimetra (1250-1500) has been submitted for the 68th Annual Meeting of the Renaissance Society of America to be held in Dublin next year (30th March-2nd April 2022).
In order to promote my project, I participated in an interview organised by CafoscariNEWS regarding the effect of the pandemic on the work of Ca Foscari’s Marie Curie researchers, which was published on 6th November in the section Research during COVID: the experience of three Marie Curie Fellows. On Friday September 24th I will also participate in the European Researchers’ Night with an interview for Radio Ca’ Foscari, which will be a good opportunity to make my research project known to a wider audience.
Since the pandemic prevented me from returning to the USA after the summer, I spent the first semester (September 2020-February 2021) working remotely in the UK. However, in the second half of the year I managed to move back to the University of Notre Dame, where I completed the outgoing phase of the fellowship. During this period, I focused primarily on the analysis of some of the prosimetra included in the inventory by using the standard format previously established.
My research was slightly delayed, above all during the first part of the year when bibliographical material could only be found through electronic resources. It was instead greatly facilitated in the second semester as I was able to have full access to the University of Notre Dame’s Hesburgh Library, though the interaction on campus with the academic staff of the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures was quite limited by the coronavirus restrictions. Regrettably, progress on the organisation of the online version of the inventory has not been as swift as I would have wished because further material is needed by the Application and Web Office of Ca’ Foscari in order to prepare the prototype of the website. I am now working on the analysis of few more texts and arranging the prepared material to a more suitable layout for the online format.
Alongside the examination of the prosimetra I attended a few online events including: the course on Italian Palaeography organised by the University of Warwick (8th October-10th December 2020); the seminars organised by the Center for Italian Studies of the University of Notre Dame, part of which was specifically dedicated to cantos I-VI of Dante’s Purgatory (September 2020 – March 2021); the weekly lectures on the Divina Commedia (From Devilry to Divinity: Readings in Dante’s Divina Commedia) organised by the Warburg Institute and the University College London (January – May 2021); the seminars “Linguistic and Literary Perspectives on Dante’s Works”, organised by the Center for Italian studies of Notre Dame in partnership with the Opera del Vocabolario Italiano (February – May 2020).
As far as the dissemination of results is concerned, in October I participated in the conference “Tra Vita nova e Convivio: Dante e il prosimetro”, organised by the Department of Literary Studies, Philology and Linguistics of the University of Milan and the Italian Department of the University of Fribourg, and delivered the paper InProV: un inventario dei prosimetri in volgare dalla “Vita Nova” di Dante agli “Asolani” di Bembo. My contribution will be included in the proceedings of the conference to be published in the open access series “Quaderni di Gargnano” at the end of 2021. In April I attended the virtual Renaissance Society of America conference: I both took part in the round table on New Technologies and Renaissance Studies discussing the paper InProV: Online inventory of the prosimetra in vulgar tongue in the early centuries of Italian Literature (1250-1500), and I chaired the panel The vernacular tradition of prosimetra in early Italian Literature (ca. 1250-1500), which I had organised. A paper proposal titled Interaction between poetry and prose in Italian vernacular prosimetra (1250-1500) has been submitted for the 68th Annual Meeting of the Renaissance Society of America to be held in Dublin next year (30th March-2nd April 2022).
In order to promote my project, I participated in an interview organised by CafoscariNEWS regarding the effect of the pandemic on the work of Ca Foscari’s Marie Curie researchers, which was published on 6th November in the section Research during COVID: the experience of three Marie Curie Fellows. On Friday September 24th I will also participate in the European Researchers’ Night with an interview for Radio Ca’ Foscari, which will be a good opportunity to make my research project known to a wider audience.
The project will make an important contribution to the field of Italian Literature as it will provide in-depth knowledge on a crucial topic – the tradition of vernacular prosimetra – on which there are no specific critical works considering it as a whole. Through the examination of the particular ways in which poetry and prose interact in those works, the inventory will provide an important tool to acquire a deeper knowledge of the distinctive features of this hybrid typology that played a pivotal role in the history of Italian literature.
The InProV project is enhancing my profile as a scholar in early Italian literature: the Italian and international conferences I took part in were a good opportunity to disseminate the findings of my research and arouse interest in the little investigated tradition of vernacular prosimetra.
The InProV project is enhancing my profile as a scholar in early Italian literature: the Italian and international conferences I took part in were a good opportunity to disseminate the findings of my research and arouse interest in the little investigated tradition of vernacular prosimetra.