Thank you, Otfried, for replying for me to Charles' challenge. Indeed,
when dealing with the Middle Ages, I don't think we should get too hung up
on notions of originality. If we avoid translations, adaptations,
imitations, rewrites, etc, what will we be left with?
Olivia
> >Why would you like to teach Marco Polo, which even in a trecentesca
> >version, is a translation? There are so many things written originally in
> >Italian that you can choose from, and some of them are quite good.
> >
> >CF
> >
>
> Dear Charles,
>
> Maybe the question should rather be "why should you like to teach Marco Polo
> **in Italian** rather than in Old French"? The answer will probably be:
> because the students in a department of Italian can read (or can be expected
> to try to read) Old Italian, but don't understand Old French, and might
> nevertheless profit in their understanding of Italian language and culture
> if they were introduced to the Milione with the help of one of the early
> versions. Given that many Italians of the time wrote Old French or
> Provencal, not to speak of Latin, I think that we shouldn't ignore their
> works when we are teaching the Trecento, but should include them either in
> the original or at least in an early version.
>
> Also I don't see what's wrong with teaching medieval translations, and why
> they shouldn't be 'good'. I myself have taught Romance versions of the
> Vision of St. Paul, and did not mind (even found some of them more
> interesting) that they were based on Latin redactions, which in turn derive
> from Greek. Benedeit's Anglo-Norman versification of the Voyage of St.
> Brendan is certainly no less 'good' than the Latin prose on which it is
> based, and the Latin rhythmical version of Benedeit's Anglo-Norman has a lot
> to offer, too. Similarly Italian volgarizzamenti of Latin classics seem a
> worthy object of study and teaching, as would be the Italian versions and
> expansions of Brunetto Latini's Old French Tresor if somebody would
> undertake it to supply us with a good edition.
>
> Otfried
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Otfried Lieberknecht, Schoeneberger Str. 11, D-12163 Berlin
> Tel.: ++49 30 8516675 (fax on request), E-mail: [log in to unmask]
> Homepage for Dante Studies:
> http://members.aol.com/lieberk/welcome.html
> ORB Dante Alighieri - A Guide to Online Resources:
> http://orb.rhodes.edu/encyclop/culture/lit/Italian/Danindex.html
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
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