Italian and Romance Philology

Italian and Romance Philology

Director Lino Leonardi (Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa) direzione@fefonlus.it

With the acquisition in 1996 of the books and documents of Gianfranco Contini, the FEF broadened its field of scientific interest to include medieval Romance literatures, predominantly Italian literature. In this sector as well, just as in the area of medieval Latin, the research promoted by the FEF is mainly oriented towards studies of textual philology and of history of the manuscript tradition, with the aim of publishing editions of literary texts and essays about their historiographical interpretation.

One long-term goal is the construction of a repertory of texts and manuscripts in database form for the medieval Italian tradition, which is lacking these basic instruments. Already in the '90s two projects were dedicated to hagiography in Italian (BAI) and to the vernacularisations of the Bible (BIBITA). Starting in 2001, we have been working to create a repertory of the lyric tradition, from the origins to Petrarch (LIO). These three repertories are online since 2012. A more recent project is dedicated to the tradition of the Guiron le Courtois (“Gruppo Guiron”), the great French Arthurian cycle, still unpublished, which inspired the chivalric era of Boiardo and Ariosto; the survey of the manuscripts will be used for a critical edition of the entire corpus.

The results of these research projects figure in the collection of texts and studies under the title «Archivio Romanzo», launched in 2001 and open to the world of studies of romance philology. A subcategory of this collection publishes works of the European Doctoral School in Romance Philology of the University of Siena. Furthermore, through the initiative of Marco Praloran, the FEF participates in the production of the journal «Stilistica e metrica italiana» and in the collection «Quaderni di Stilistica e metrica italiana».

In addition to conferences and workshops focussing on specific interests, starting in 2008 the FEF has organised in alternating years a workshop on romance philology in collaboration with the journal «Medioevo Romanzo».