Fragmented Memory: Omission, Selection, and Loss in Ancient and Medieval Literature and History

339 Pages·2022·6.449 MB·English

by  Nicoletta Bruno, Martina Filosa, Giulia Marinelli

Fragmented Memory
Beiträge zur Altertumskunde
Herausgegeben von
Susanne Daub, Michael Erler, Dorothee Gall,
Ludwig Koenen und Clemens Zintzen
Band 404
Fragmented
Memory
Omission, Selection, and Loss in Ancient
and Medieval Literature and History
Edited by
Nicoletta Bruno, Martina Filosa, and Giulia Marinelli
ISBN 978-3-11-074038-7
e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-074204-6
e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-074209-1
ISSN 1616-0452
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Control Number: 9783110740387
Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie;
detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de.
© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Printing and binding: CPI books GmbH, Leck
www.degruyter.com
Preface
Since 2016, at the University of Bari ‘Aldo Moro’, a large group of young Classi-
cists – Italian and foreign – gather for a two-day meeting, which has become a
useful and extraordinary regular appointment for fruitful exchanges of ideas
and experiences. With the exception of a keynote speaker, usually an estab-
lished scholar, who delivers a lecture during a plenary session, the majority of
the other conference speakers are doctoral students, post-docs, early career
researchers, and even advanced master students, who do research in the fields
of Greek and Latin, from Antiquity to the Middle Ages, and even the Renais-
sance.
The themes of these meetings are multidisciplinary and carefully chosen so
that a high number of people have the chance to gather and deliver papers, or
present posters, on topics dealing with their specific research. These important
initiatives have their origin in the activity of a small group of Italian young fe-
male scholars, most of whom are among those students who chose or were
forced to choose to emigrate to progress with their studies and careers, having
to face the lack of material resources and the harsh truth of certain Italian poli-
cies regarding University. They had the excellent idea of co-founding the Cul-
tural Association Prolepsis, which successfully commits to organize a series of
academic activities.
This volume for which I have been asked to write a Preface includes a selec-
tion of papers presented in Bari in December 2018, on the occasion of Prolepsis’
third postgraduate conference, titled Optanda erat oblivio: Selection and Loss in
Ancient and Medieval Literature.
The motto Optanda erat oblivio is taken from a passage of the De beneficiis
(5.25.2) by L. Annaeus Seneca. During those two days, a lively and fruitful dis-
cussion took place on the topics of memory and oblivion in ancient and medie-
val texts, a discussion which covered an extremely vast range of subjects and
questions.
On that occasion, I was kindly asked to give the keynote address. As topic,
I chose a subject that fits into one of my main research interests, which I
thought very suitable for a wide and varied audience; the title of my lecture
was: Pratiche di redazione e di produzione libraria nella biblioteca di Filodemo a
Ercolano. These pages were already destined to a different editorial project, and
have recently been published in a miscellaneous volume, curated by A. Skalli,
Historiens et érudits à leur écritoire, Bordeaux 2019, 69–91. To honor my duty as
guest, I wrote for the present volume a new shorter contribution, which is more
consistent with the theme of the book: The Stobean Text Tradition of Pseudo-
h ttps://doi.org/10.1515/9783110742046-202
VI | Preface
Aristotle De mundo. This is meant to be another small piece within a series of
preliminary contributions I am writing with the final goal of compiling a new
edition of books 1–2 of Stobaeus’ Anthology, after that by Kurt Wachsmuth
(1884).
As a conclusion to my Preface, I would like to suggest – if not a title – at
least a topic that could be a federating instrument and provide a wide range of
ideas for a future Prolepsis meeting.
Taking the cue from an observation by Martin L. West, Textual Criticism and
Editorial Technique Applicable to Greek and Latin Texts, Stuttgart 1973, 62: ‘codi-
cology and textual criticism are very different things, and an expert on manu-
scripts may produce a dismal edition’, Guglielmo Cavallo has recently written
(Del manuscrito antiguo a la edición crítica de textos griegos. Homenaje a la Profa
Elsa García Novo, Madrid 2019, XVII–XX):
Se questo è vero, è altrettanto vero che un filologo inesperto di manoscritti può ugualmen-
te produrre un’edizione miseranda ove non si accorga che una buona lezione non è di tra-
dizione ma di un copista dotto; che confonda un modello con una copia migliorata con in-
terventi correttivi perché ne data male i manoscritti; che di fronte a un codice, la cui
numerazione dei fascicoli si interrompa per riprendere con una nuova serie di segnature,
ignori il fenomeno e non lo metta in relazione con antigrafi e rami di tradizione diversi che
ne possono essere all’origine. Esempi di edizioni che non tengono in alcun conto questi e
altri aspetti materiali della tradizione non mancano.
There is no need to stress that it is always appropriate to share thoughts of the
sort, on the ever-pressing necessity of practicing material philology and stem-
matic codicology, comparing the experiences of textual critics, papyrologists,
paleographers, and codicologists, cooperating in a practical form amicitia philo-
logorum (where philologus has a broader sense, which includes other disci-
plines). This amicitia, due to the extreme specialization of most branches of our
research, can only become real, if a constant cooperation between specialists of
all disciplines occurs. Unfortunately, an ideal like this must often clash with the
actual frenzy affecting the world of scholarly research as it is now, obsessed
with intrusive and noxious bibliometric criteria: as a result of this, our amicitia
philologorum is risking extinction. Colleagues (especially younger ones) ready to
address questions on individual aspects on which they are experts are becom-
ing rare. But fortunately, there are some exceptions.
If we want compartmentalized knowledge to disappear, or at least, to stop
growing exponentially, we must address younger generations and lead them to
a revaluation of the genuine pleasure of selfless scholarly cooperation. It goes
without saying, this will imply sacrificing a small part of individual work in
favor of a higher ideal, that of progress and science, which inspired – for a life-
Preface | VII
time – scholars like Paul Maas, or my late mentor Rudolf Kassel, both always
available and generous with those who addressed them (without ever risking
any disappointment).
Hence my proposal of a conference in which the young members of Prolep-
sis discuss about Textkritik and material philology in a productive debate, under
the auspices of amicitia philolologorum. Hoc est in votis.

Paris, November 2020 Tiziano Dorandi

Acknowledgements
The present collection of essays derives from Prolepsis’ Third Postgraduate Con-
ference Optanda erat oblivio: Selection and Loss in Ancient and Medieval Litera-
ture (Università degli Studi di Bari ‘Aldo Moro’, December 20–21, 2018). Taking a
cue from Seneca’s De beneficiis 5.25.2, referring to Tiberius’ wish for forgetful-
ness (‘optanda erat oblivio’), this quotation has been the starting point for a
fruitful discussion among more than sixty postgraduate students and early-
career researchers on a vast spectrum of issues related to memory and oblivion
from Classical Antiquity to the Middle Ages and beyond.
This volume is conceived in continuity with BzA 375, On the Track of the
Books. Scribes, Libraries and Textual Transmission edited by Roberta Berardi,
Nicoletta Bruno, and Luisa Fizzarotti (2019) and with BzA 385, Defining Author-
ship, Debating Authenticity: Problems of Authority from Classical Antiquity to the
Renaissance, edited by Roberta Berardi, Martina Filosa, and Davide Massimo
(2020), as part of a project of three coordinated conferences (2016–2018) on the
history of books and textual tradition organized by the Cultural Association
Prolepsis. The first volume originated from Prolepsis’ First Postgraduate Confer-
ence, Cupis Volitare Per Auras: Books, Libraries and Textual Transmission from
the Ancient to the Medieval World (October 27–28, 2016), and, among many
book-related topics, it dealt with book circulation, which has often been the
only means of survival for certain books, lost in the place where they were pro-
duced, and re-found somewhere else, far away, where book trade took them.
The second volume originated in Prolepsis’ Second Postgraduate Conference,
Auctor est Aequivocum: Authenticity, Authority and Authorship from the Classical
Antiquity to the Middle Ages (October 26–27, 2017), and it went on to explain,
with a number of case studies ranging from Greek archaic poetry to philosophi-
cal treatises in the Renaissance, how crucial authorship and authenticity were
for the survival of literary and historical works.
We wish therefore to record our gratitude to the editors of the series Beiträge
zur Altertumskunde, and especially to Michael Erler, for their support and en-
couragement over the years. We would also like to thank Sorina Moosdorf, Carla
Schmidt, and Mirko Vonderstein for their invaluable assistance.
We take the opportunity here to thank all invited speakers, chairpersons,
and participants for the stimulating discussions during the conference from
which the present volume originates. In particular, we owe an immense debt of
gratitude to the members of the Cultural Association Prolepsis and to the Uni-
versità degli Studi di Bari ‘Aldo Moro’ for supporting our conferences and initia-
tives over the years.
h ttps://doi.org/10.1515/9783110742046-203
X | Acknowledgements
A special thank goes to the reviewers of the present volume: Camilla Cam-
pedelli, Emanuele Castelli, Stylianos Chronopoulos, Aldo Corcella, Tiziano Do-
randi, Maria Jennifer Falcone, Federico Favi, Fabio Gasti, Gianluca Gregori,
Stephen Harrison, Lisa Hau, Gavin Kelly, Emanuele Lelli, Angelo Luceri, Giulio
Massimilla, Stephanos Matthaios, Franco Montanari, Thomas Nelson, Rosa
Otranto, Christopher Pelling, Antonio Stramaglia, Claudia Wiener.
On a more personal note, we would like to thank the loved ones – in partic-
ular all of our respective families scattered all over Europe – who continuously
supported us in our work, even more so during the difficult times of the pan-
demic.