Month: November 2024

The present-day knowledge of Russian music tradition from the 18th to the early 19th centuries, with respect to the operatic stage, still lacks systematic study, and this is due to two factors: 

• The traditional bias toward music produced in Russia before the life and activity of composer Mikhail I. Glinka (1804 – 1857), which was developed in Soviet time and still dominates secondary literature in Russian language; 
• The scant availability of sources and their dissemination throughout the Russian territory and abroad, a fact representing an obstacle to a reconstruction of historical facts. 

This project aims to provide a systematic study of outstanding testimonies of musical culture from the import of opera in Russia (from the 1730s onwards) to the production of the first titles of Russian music theatre responding to the will to create a national repertoire, which took place in the first quarter of the 19th century. 

This project includes collecting, elaborating, and making a series of fundamental sources available to the scholarly community, selected according to their condition in terms of risk of disappearing and becoming permanently lost. The collection of these testimonies relies on previous groundwork that allowed me, as a Principal Investigator, to select them as essential to the full reconstruction of Russian music practices. 

While elaborating a digital archive based on a database, and of a user’s interface, we will focus on 4 main cores: 

1. the critical edition of the opera Gorebogatïr’ Kosometovich (The Ill-Fated Knight Kosometovich) by Catherine the Great and composer Vicente Martín y Soler (1788-89): digital publication of libretto and complete music score; 
2. study and reconstruction of the music reception granted by European Courts to Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich Romanov and his espouse Mariya Fyodorovna in their grand tour of the years 1781-82: collection, interpretation, and edition of unpublished documents; 
3. the publication of the correspondence Hivart – Sheremetev in original French/Russian with English translation; 
4. the study of the “Russian fund” preserved at the Library of the Conservatoire “Santa Cecilia” in Rome: classification, digitalization, and selection of sources for publication. 

Group leader: Anna Giust (dir.) (PA) 

Internal members:

• Anna Stetsenko (post-doc)

External members:

• Sofia Cappelletti (Bologna, Scuola di specializzazione in Beni musicali – intern at Dip. Lingue e letterature Straniere UniVR) (2) 
• Roberto Giuliani, Luca Cianfoni, Francesca Candeli (Rome, Biblioteca del Conservatorio “Santa Cecilia”) 
• Bella Brover-Lubovsky (Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance) (3) 
• John A. Rice (independent researcher) (3) 
• Inna Naroditskaya (Northwestern University -Northwestern Bienen School of Music) (2) 

Actions: WP 1.1; WP 1.3 

References:

Giust, Anna, Cercando l’opera russa. La formazione di una coscienza nazionale nel teatro musicale del Settecento, Amici della Scala-Feltrinelli, Milano 2014, pp. xxi-415, ISBN 9788858817582 
Giust, Anna, “Il grand tour del granduca Pavel Petrovič Romanov: andata e ritorno tra Russia ed Europa”, in Diciottesimo secolo, 2 (2017), pp. 143-63 
Giust, Anna, “International Networking in Russian Music Theatre around 1800: Sheremetev, Yusupov and Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich”, Nineteenth-Century Music Review, vol. 20/2 (2022), pp. 261-284 (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1479409822000131) 
Seaman, Gerald R., «Folk-song in Russian Opera in the 18th Century», Slavonic and East European Review, 41: 96 (1962), pp. 144-57 
Link, Dorothea y Leonardo J. Waisman eds., Los siete mundos de Martín y Soler, Actas del congreso internacional, Valencia, 14-18 noviembre 2006, Valencia, Institut Valencia de la musica, Generalitat valenciana, 2010
A. Elizarova, Teatrï Sheremetevïkh, Moskva, Izdaniye Ostankinskogo dvortsa-muzeya, 1944

The project intends to continue the indexing, already begun in the previous five years and aimed at creating a database, of an important French women’s journal of the nineteenth century, La Gazette des femmes. Journal poétique, littéraire, artistique, judiciaire et religieux… [1841-1847], kept at the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris, and never digitized. The periodical, moderate in scope but with significant openings over the years, is very interesting, also in relation to contemporary or later journals, as regards issues such as identity and otherness, the role and literary and artistic production of women, in a period that from the first “feminist” movements of the 1830s leads to the eve of the Revolution of 1848. This is accompanied by historical and legal insights, when not religious, political and economic ones, as well as analyses of social problems such as working conditions in various sectors, slavery, before its abolition in 1848, poverty or health issues. This also testifies to female engagement in favor of the inclusion and improvement of the conditions of minorities, at various levels, including through current events articles. These ones also contribute to the rich cultural panorama offered by the journal, at an interdisciplinary level, concerning contemporary literary, artistic, musical, dance and theatrical life. It will also be possible to verify the evolution of the image of women, without neglecting the advance of modernity as regards, in some cases, fashion or advertising. 

The database, sustainable through the already existing departmental platforms, will allow queries by date, titles, topics, authors of the articles, and therefore generalized accessibility to topics and data that would otherwise be difficult to find. A scientific introduction, with the presentation of the journal, against the background of the most recent critical studies on the French periodical press of the nineteenth century, will also allow contextualizing the results emerging from this research, emphasizing its most significant aspects. 

Group leader: Laura Maria Colombo 

Actions: WP 1.1*, WP 1.3

References:

Adler, Laure, Les premières journalistes, 1830-1850, Paris, Payot, 1979 
Planté, Christine –Thérenty, Marie-Ève (dir.), Masculin/Féminin dans la presse du XIXe siècle, Lyon, Presses Universitaires de Lyon, 2022 
Reid, Martine (dir.), Femmes et littérature. Une histoire culturelle, Paris, Gallimard, 2020, t. II. 
Thérenty, Marie-Ève, Femmes de presse, femmes de lettres, Paris, CNRS Éditions, 2019  

*Possible connections with European and American research groups on feminism, and the database could also provide a possible future contribution to projects, in the Digital Humanities field, by the Bibliothèque nationale de France on women’s press, see for example https://www.bnf.fr/fr/mediatheque/un-journalisme-au-feminin-enjeux-historiques-du-numerique.

From the beginning of the 13th century, a new book type appeared in German codicology, in which narrative texts were illustrated and the illustrations were accompanied by inscriptions, conceived as a summary of the action, character lines or comments by the narrator (mostly in close relation to the main poetic text). The milestone of this emerging book form is the so-called Berliner Eneit (mgf 282), where the individual parts that make up the codex were conceived and produced at the same time.  Similar codicological structuring can be found in the oldest complete manuscript of the Tristan by Gottfried von Straßburg (München, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Cgm 51), where, however, both illustrations and inscriptions were produced at successive times, over the course of at least two centuries (until the beginning of the 15th century), and with the assistance of several agents (at least two illustrator workshops and an unknown number of hands for the inscriptions). 

The inscription apparatus, in particular, represents a remarkable example of sequential collaborative writing: several agents contribute to a kind of intermodal gloss in progress to the poetic text. Given the uncertainties about the manuscript’s place of origin and the early stages of its history, the palaeographic cataloguing of the hands involved in the inscriptions would represent a remarkable philological achievement. Cgm 51 has already been studied within the framework of the TRISDE 51 sub-project of the EP 2018-2022 of the DiLLS: the illustrations and inscriptions were analysed and annotated, developing a new XML/TEI encoding model for studying the text/image relationship. However, the palaegraphical analysis of the active hands in the inscriptions has yet to be completed. The project presented here intends to produce a diplomatic edition of the inscriptions that follows FAIR principles. Tools developed in the field of digital palaeography and Handwritten Text Recognition (DigiPal, Graphoskop, PSL Scripta, etc.) will be employed, to attempt at least an attribution of the palaeographically homogeneous groups of inscriptions to the scriptural customs and provinces of the German area in the centuries involved. Where possible, an analytical distinction of the active hands in the illustrations will also be attemped. 

The project will be introduced by a survey of the tools currently available in digital palaeography and automatic script recognition. The results will be of great significance for Gottfriedian philology, for the study of the illustrated manuscript book and for the history of the reception and active hand in such an intermodal codicological object. 

Group leader: Maria Adele Cipolla (PO) 

Internal members:

• Stefano Bazzaco
• Anna Cappellotto

Action:

WP 1.3

Bibliography:

Baisch, M., „Das Skriptorium des Cgm 51“, in Schubert, M., Schreiborte des deutschen Mittelalters: Skriptorien, Werke, Mäzene, Berlin-Boston: de Gruyter, 2013, 669-90. 
Ciula, Arianna, “Digital palaeography: What is digital about it?”, Digital Scholarship in the Humanities, 32/2 (2017), 89-105
Graphoskop
Nichols, Stephen (ed.). 1990. «Introduction: Philology in a Manuscript Culture», Speculum, 65, 1, 1-10. 
PSL Scripta

Diversity, Inclusivity, and Accessibility in Digital Scientific Editions (DIA-DSE) seeks to respond to some of the goals set forth in globally relevant strategic agendas and plans that point to the idea that a knowledge society such as the one in which we live should develop an open model of science. Our project will investigate a traditional field of study in philology, namely editions, in their most recent development: Digital Scholarly Editions (DSE). Now that the number of resources has become considerable, the scope of DSEs as a critical representation of historical documents or texts that follow a digital paradigm raises the following questions: do DSE projects take Diversity, Inclusivity, and Accessibility (= DIA) into account? If yes, how much and how? To provide an answer, we will build a corpus of existing resources and we will attempt to assess their DIA-degree. To test the accessibility of the editions, specific tools will be identified to conduct evaluations. Guidelines provided by the W3C – Web Accessibility Initiative, will be used as basic parameters for testing the design of digital interfaces for use by people with (in)visible disabilities, and new guidelines for applying FAIR principles in editions will be considered (Gengnagel et al. 2022). Diversity as “a function of dissimilarity, which in the human and social realm can manifest itself in many different forms and dimensions” (EADH – Statement for Diversity and Inclusivity) and inclusivity, i.e. “a focus on representing and including people/groups who would otherwise be marginalized” (Martinez et al. 2019) will be assessed by examining other criteria: do DSEs represent marginalized subjectivities, languages, content, and cultures? Do they question and reconstruct a new canon in the digital medium or do they tend to reproduce the existing? After this initial data collection and analysis, a ranking of diverse, inclusive, and accessible resources will be defined. These initial results will be followed by a survey that will be disseminated within the scientific community and users, with the aim of opening discussion, raising awareness and gathering suggestions for the creation of DIA-DSA guidelines, which will be published at the end of the project. Alongside this, awareness will be raised among the community for the creation of accessible, inclusive and diverse resources, providing an example/prototype DIA-DSA resource that can serve as a virtuous model at the end of the PdE. A series of scientific initiatives such as seminars and workshops on building accessible, inclusive and diverse DSE will also be organized.

Group leader: Adele Cipolla 

Internal members:

• Stefano Bazzaco
• Anna Bognolo
• Anna Cappellotto
• Stefano Neri

External members:

• Raffaele Cioffi (Università di Torino) 

Actions: WP 1.3, WP 1.4

References:

Gengnagel (et al.) (2022). Criteria for reviewing the application of FAIR principles in digital scholarly editions. Version 1.1, https://ride.i-d-e.de/fair-criteria-editions/
Martinez (et. al.) (2019). “Refining our conceptions of ‘access’ in digital scholarly editing: Reflections on a qualitative survey on inclusive design and dissemination”, Variants 14, 41-74. https://doi.org/10.4000/variants.1070
Making the Web Accessible. Strategies, standards, and supporting resources to help you make the Web more accessible to people with disabilities https://www.w3.org/WAI/ 
van Mierlo (2022). “The Scholarly Edition as Digital Experience”, Textual Cultures 15, 1, Special Issue: Provocations Toward Creative-Critical Editing (Spring 2022), 117-125, https://www.jstor.org/stable/48687518

Theodoric the Great (454-526), king of the Ostrogoths, was a historical figure that in cultural memory became Theodoric of Verona (Dietrich von Bern), that is one of the most popular epic-heroic legends within the Germanic literature (Haymes 2020; Wisniewski 1986). The association with Verona stems from Theoderic’s bond with the town, where traces of the historical and legendary presence of the Ostrogoths can still be identified. 

This project aims to create an annotated corpus of literary witnesses concerning the legend of Theoderic (Heinzle 1999; Lienert 2008), which starts from the local context and highlights the modes of evolution and sedimentation of this legend within the Germanic literary traditions. 

The figure of Theodoric permeates both Latin and vernacular European cultures in an ambivalent way, as the king is sometimes depicted as a valiant hero and other times as a foolish and heretical king. His popularity across the Alps is evidenced by various texts, such as the Norwegian Saga of Theoderic of Bern and the so-called ‘Theodoric cycle,’ a series of Middle High German works blending historical and legendary elements around the Gothic king’s exploits. 

Within the scope of this project, Germanic Philology intends to connect its studies to the local territory of Verona. Our findings will be disseminated not only through traditional academic channels but also to the local and international public at large via the digital media. By 2026, marking with celebrations and events the 1500 years since King Theodoric’s death, we plan to launch a digital application featuring an interactive thematic itinerary through Theodoric’s historical sites in Verona. This resource will be multilingual and multimedia, with a strong focus on accessibility. 

In collaboration with local institutions and bodies, the project aims to contribute to the development of an inclusive and sustainable tourism, by giving value to lesser-known aspects of local cultural heritage and linking them to the Germanic literary traditions. 

Group leader: Anna Cappellotto (PA)  

Internal members: Maria Adele Cipolla (PO)  

Actions: WP 1.3

References:

Haymes, Edward R., & Susann T. Samples. Heroic Legends of the North: An Introduction to the Nibelung and Dietrich Cycles. London and New York: Routledge, 2020. 
Heinzle, Joachim. Einführung in die mittelhochdeutsche Dietrichepik. De-Gruyter-Studienbuch. Berlin: De Gruyter, 1999. 
Lienert, Elisabeth. Dietrich-Testimonien des 6. bis 16. Jahrhunderts. Tübingen: De Gruyter, 2008. 
Wisniewski, Roswitha. Mittelalterliche Dietrichdichtung. Stuttgart: Metzler, 1986.   

The project aims to examine the textual practices that have shaped the historical and contemporary transmission, dissemination, and accessibility of/in Chinese literature in new contexts of reception from intra-cultural and intercultural perspectives.  

The research follows three main axes. The first one focuses on the Chinese intra-cultural space and analyses the forms of mediation, genres and textual categories, contexts and agents that have promoted the dissemination and popularisation of knowledge and ancient and pre-modern literary works, favouring their accessibility and comprehensibility in different historical periods. The research will pay particular attention to forms of annotation and glossing, commentary, prosification and translation into simplified or vernacular linguistic registers, rewriting, and adaptation.  

The second axis examines the processes and mechanisms that, since the 20th century, have characterised the dissemination and reception of Chinese literature, focusing on ancient and pre-modern literature (up to 1911) in the Italian publishing and cultural context, in which the Chinese literary tradition still occupies a very marginal position. In this part, the project will pay particular attention to studies in the field of literary historiography, literary hermeneutics, and translation theory and practice – including both direct translations from Chinese and indirect translations from mediating languages. 

The third axis continues the research in the context of indirect translation, investigating the processes and agents that facilitated the transmission of Western literary works into the Chinese literary system, focusing in particular on the first half of the 20th century.  

Group leader: Barbara Bisetto

External members:

• Daniele Beltrame (Università per Stranieri di Perugia, Dipartimento Lingua, letteratura e arti italiane nel mondo) 

Actions: WP1.1; WP 1.3

References:

Assis Rosa Alexandra, Hanna Pięta, Rita Bueno Maria (eds. 2017). Indirect Translation: Theoretical, Methodological and Terminological Issues. Special Issue of Translation Studies. 
Gu Ming Dong (2014). Translating China for Western Readers. Reflective, Critical, and Practical Essays. Albany: SUNY Press. 
Gu Yongxin (2014). 经学文献的衍生和通俗化：以近古时代的传刻为中心 (Derivation and Popularization of Confucian Classics Document. Centred around Circulation and Block Printing in Late Antiquity). 2 Voll. Beijing: Beijing daxue chubanshe. 
Neves Josélia (2022). “Translation and accessibility. The translation of everyday things”. In Federico Zanettin, Christopher Rundle (eds). The Routledge Handbook of Translation and Methodology. London: Routledge, pp. 441-456. 
Sun Yifeng, Li Dechao (eds) (2023). Transcultural Poetics. Chinese Literature in English Translation. London: Routledge.