For precise schedule of offerings see department catalog during pre-enrollment week each semester.

The great majority of ancient literary works survive in manuscripts written more than a thousand years after the death of their authors. In spite of new discoveries in papyri since the late 19th century, the bulk of ancient literature that we know today is what medieval scribes and scholars chose to preserve because they saw in them qualities very different from the ones that interest Western modernity. The seminar will examine the motivation and mechanisms that enabled the transmission of ancient literary culture throughout the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Reference will be made to the Greek, Latin, and Arabic Middle Ages. Problems in approaching the visual culture will also be briefly mentioned.

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