Students Examine Original Documents in the Bancroft Collection: Seminar on Italian Manuscripts with International Expert
At the invitation of the Department of Italian Studies, Professor Armando Petrucci of the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa in Italy, one of the world's foremost authorities in the field of the history of written culture, came to Berkeley last fall to teach an advanced seminar on "Vernacular Manuscript Culture in Italy from 1200 to 1500."
Focusing on the styles of script used for the dissemination of various types of vernacular texts, Professor Petrucci covered from the time when such texts were first beginning to be written down in Italy around the year 1200, to the Age of Humanism. During each of the seven three-hour seminars, teaching materials included, as usual, photocopies and facsimiles. But it is worth noting that the range of the holdings of Medieval and Renaissance manuscripts at The Bancroft Library is such that Professor Petrucci was able to show and to circulate among the students a selection of original manuscripts, and thus to convey to them the real "feel" of what manuscript books produced in Italy in the pre-Gutenberg era looked like. Facsimiles and photocopies are very useful and, indeed, indispensable — but for a true understanding of this fascinating subject nothing can ever replace the examination and study of the original artifact.
The seminar, originally scheduled to begin on September 17th, had to be postponed for a few days and would have been canceled altogether had Professor Petrucci not insisted on fulfilling his program despite the great difficulties caused by the temporary suspension of international flights at the time.
—Bernard Rosenthal
Volume 20
Spring 2002
Table of Contents
From the Director: Bancroft's New Building?
Students Examine Original Documents
Edward P. and Elliot Reed Letters
