Bibliography

Francesco
Marzella

3 publications between 2016 and 2017 indexed

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Works edited

Aspetti del meraviglioso nelle letterature medievali = Aspects du merveilleux dans les littératures médiévales: medioevo latino, romanzo, germanico e celtico

Consolino, Franca Ela, Francesco Marzella, and Lucilla Spetia (eds), Aspetti del meraviglioso nelle letterature medievali = Aspects du merveilleux dans les littératures médiévales: medioevo latino, romanzo, germanico e celtico, Culture et société médiévales, 29, Turnhout: Brepols, 2016.

Contributions to edited collections or authored works

Tackling mirabilia: Gervase of Tilbury, Walter Map and the Church Fathers

Marzella, Francesco, “Tackling mirabilia: Gervase of Tilbury, Walter Map and the Church Fathers”, in: Guy Guldentops, Christian Laes, and Gert Partoens (eds), Felici curiositate: studies in Latin literature and textual criticism from antiquity to the twentieth century: in honour of Rita Beyers, 72, Turnhout: Brepols, 2017. 573–594.

abstract:

The third book of Gervase of Tilbury’s Otia Imperialia, written for Emperor Otto IV, deals with the marvellous and the miraculous and it is therefore usually compared to Walter Map’s De Nugis Curialium, a slightly older work containing different tales of the supernatural, often drawn from oral sources. Actually, a number of stories appear in both works and the writers possibly met at the court of Henry II and at that of his son, the Young Henry. However, the general purposes of the two texts seem to be somewhat different: Walter Map’s De Nugis, lacking a final revision by the author, does not seem to be ascribable to any conventional literary genre and its declared purpose is to amuse and to offer moral teaching, with a touch of irony; Gervase’s Otia Imperialia instead is structured as an encyclopedic treatise meant to instruct and delight the emperor. The purpose of this paper is to show how the difference between the texts is also evident from the authors’ different treatment of a particular source: the writings of the Fathers. While in Gervase’s work quotations of the Fathers are frequent and have different functions (they are explicitly mentioned as sources of some episodes, invoked as auctoritates to justify the choice of such an unusual topic and most of all they offer reliable interpretations of the supernatural), Walter Map – who was equally acquainted with the Fathers and able to imitate their style – in contrast hardly ever mentions the Fathers, probably due to a deliberate choice.

abstract:

The third book of Gervase of Tilbury’s Otia Imperialia, written for Emperor Otto IV, deals with the marvellous and the miraculous and it is therefore usually compared to Walter Map’s De Nugis Curialium, a slightly older work containing different tales of the supernatural, often drawn from oral sources. Actually, a number of stories appear in both works and the writers possibly met at the court of Henry II and at that of his son, the Young Henry. However, the general purposes of the two texts seem to be somewhat different: Walter Map’s De Nugis, lacking a final revision by the author, does not seem to be ascribable to any conventional literary genre and its declared purpose is to amuse and to offer moral teaching, with a touch of irony; Gervase’s Otia Imperialia instead is structured as an encyclopedic treatise meant to instruct and delight the emperor. The purpose of this paper is to show how the difference between the texts is also evident from the authors’ different treatment of a particular source: the writings of the Fathers. While in Gervase’s work quotations of the Fathers are frequent and have different functions (they are explicitly mentioned as sources of some episodes, invoked as auctoritates to justify the choice of such an unusual topic and most of all they offer reliable interpretations of the supernatural), Walter Map – who was equally acquainted with the Fathers and able to imitate their style – in contrast hardly ever mentions the Fathers, probably due to a deliberate choice.

Mondi fatati nella letteratura Anglo-Latina del XII secolo (Guglielmo di Newburgh, Giraldo Cambrense, Miracles of Farne)

Marzella, Francesco, “Mondi fatati nella letteratura Anglo-Latina del XII secolo (Guglielmo di Newburgh, Giraldo Cambrense, Miracles of Farne)”, in: Franca Ela Consolino, Francesco Marzella, and Lucilla Spetia (eds), Aspetti del meraviglioso nelle letterature medievali = Aspects du merveilleux dans les littératures médiévales: medioevo latino, romanzo, germanico e celtico, 29, Turnhout: Brepols, 2016. 81–92.

abstract:

Three narrations of journeys to other worlds found in Latin texts written in Britain in the late 12th century are examined in this paper. The first narration comes from William of Newburgh’s Historia Rerum Anglicarum (I, 28); the second story is found in Gerald of Wales’ Itinerarium Kambriae (I, 28) and the third one in a collection of miracles attributed to St. Cuthbert, known as The Miracles of Farne.

The purpose of the paper is to analyse the approach of each writer to the marvellous and to show how a similar subject could be shaped in different ways and adapted to different literary genres in order to convey different kind of messages and teachings. The analysis and comparison of these three texts focus on: what these texts deal with, looking at their narrative structure and highlighting their common points; how these stories were told by different authors, pointing out the peculiarities of each text; why these similar narrations were inserted in texts belonging to different literary genres.

abstract:

Three narrations of journeys to other worlds found in Latin texts written in Britain in the late 12th century are examined in this paper. The first narration comes from William of Newburgh’s Historia Rerum Anglicarum (I, 28); the second story is found in Gerald of Wales’ Itinerarium Kambriae (I, 28) and the third one in a collection of miracles attributed to St. Cuthbert, known as The Miracles of Farne.

The purpose of the paper is to analyse the approach of each writer to the marvellous and to show how a similar subject could be shaped in different ways and adapted to different literary genres in order to convey different kind of messages and teachings. The analysis and comparison of these three texts focus on: what these texts deal with, looking at their narrative structure and highlighting their common points; how these stories were told by different authors, pointing out the peculiarities of each text; why these similar narrations were inserted in texts belonging to different literary genres.