S.hundreds of applicants from all over the world and 40/45: the degree course in English Classics – Classical Civilization and Literature, born two years ago within the Department of Sciences of Antiquity at theLa Sapienza University of Romeproved to be an instant success.
We must no longer think of humanities as residual, for a few Italian students – better still, students – who don’t want to know about Stem. In Latin, Greek, ancient history, philology, archeology we are the champions of the world; we have a great tradition and we also know how to innovate. Doors open to international students therefore, aware that Oxford and Cambridge, on the podium, remain a step lower. Also this year, in fact, the Department of Sapienza is first in the QS World University Rankings by Subject for the Classics and Ancient History category. If we then add that La Sapienza, the same institute, is also tenth in Archeology, the result is unmatched.
A group of students from La Sapienza University of Rome in the Museum of Classical Art.
A double excellence that starts from afar, in a country among the last in Europe in terms of the number of graduates, where research funds are scarce, freshmen drop, structures are often old-fashioned to put it mildly. But when the passion, the competence, the projects find a channel, the results arrive.
“With us, tradition is past, present and future»Says Antonella Polimeni, director of the largest university in Europe, proudly. «We give importance to the contamination between humanistic knowledge and scientific disciplines, so much so that we are starting with a degree course in Philosophy and Artificial Intelligence for young people who want to test themselves in both fields. Then there is the training offer in English, which is very attractive on an international level. We do not stop with the news, but we believe that classical studies remain fundamental to remind us of the principles of our civilization and to understand the present, while Latin is a training in logic. I would add that Classics students can study in a faculty that hosts four museums. All to say that the mix of Wisdom is unique, with experiments that are innervated on a well-established path ».
A path that we discover with Giorgio Piras, full professor of Classical Philology and director of the Department of Ancient Sciences since 2018, when for the first time in the QS Rankings by Subject the Classics and Ancient History category entered and La Sapienza, suddenly, conquered the first place (always maintained except in 2020, when it fell a step). «First you have to explain that this ranking relies on academic reputation, that is, hundreds of colleagues from all over the world are interviewed, “he explains. “In our field it is easy to understand where the value is, and the stability of the result from 2018 is a confirmation”.
To find out how the university got to the top, we need to start from 2010: «In that year we reorganized the Department by putting all the disciplines of Antiquities under the same “hat”, that is philology, ancient history but also archeology. This has allowed greater collaboration between us internally, more compactness and better external attractiveness, with an increase in international relations ».
Students of the Sapienza University of Rome engaged in the excavations of Pyrgi, in Upper Lazio.
Yes to Stem but also to Latin
As evidence of the good work done, it should be added that Classics freshmen – about 200 per year, in addition to 45 in the English course – continue to grow. «Studying antiquity is a choice that goes against the grain today, and those who make it are highly motivated, have a good basic preparation and are very committed to us. Our children, followed by 77 teachers, are very different in geographical and social origin, they do not always come from classical high school but they all have a great passion »adds Piras.
Orienting young people towards Stem is useful, but it would be absurd, in Italy, “to neglect the classical culture which is everywhere, in landscapes and in everyday life, and is also successfully taught in other universities such as Milan, Bologna, Pisa, Florence, Naples. We don’t feel isolated ». The idea of being able to study in a particular context, with four university museums available, as mentioned by the director: the Museum of Classical Art – the former plaster cast gallery founded in 1892 – the Museum of Origins (prehistory), the Museum of Etruscan and Italic Antiquities, the Museum of the Near East. To add the Theatron – Ancient theater at Sapienza – which, in addition to the preparation and staging of an opera, also includes a philological laboratory for the translation of Latin and Greek plays. In short, antiques 24 hours a day to be experienced, as well as to be studied.
The commitment ends up rewarding: “Many of our graduates go to teach, and it’s a passion, not a makeshiftThe director continues. “But it is also true that the constancy in the study, the wide-ranging training, the flexibility, the logical and in-depth ability allow them to face complex realities in other work contexts”. Naturally Piras would like some of the young people to find space in research: “We are recruiting new teachers, we would like to increase the places. We have already managed to have some young researchers thanks to the prestigious European ERC and Marie Curie scholarships, also open to the humanities sector. If our boys have won them, it means that they are really good ».
There are also other financing channels: “The archaeological excavations, one of the flagships, are financed with university funds»Explains the director Polimeni. “There is indeed a specialized commission. Our archaeologists dig everywhere; from Pyrgi, in Upper Lazio, to Ebla, in Syria, to Arslantepe, in Turkey. We are really proud of it ».
A representation of the Theatron – Ancient Theater at Sapienza, which in addition to the staging of an opera includes a philological translation laboratory.
It is excavated in Jerusalem
The latest excavation, which is starting these days in an extraordinary place, is also the most delicate: for the first time we go to investigate what is under the floor of the Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher, in Jerusalem. “We were chosen by the three communities that have the custody of the complex – Orthodox Patriarchate, Custody of the Holy Land and Armenian Patriarchate – to dig in the funerary area of Jesus” explains the coordinator, Professor Francesca Romana Stasolla.
«The restoration of the floor, on the other hand, was entrusted to the Conservation and Restoration Foundation La Venaria Reale. We will work at night, because the liturgy will always be ensured during the day and the visit of pilgrims. Sara a “peel and sew” job, because it will peel off one piece of the flooring at a time, and then it will come back into place. Our team is multidisciplinary: with us archaeologists there are historians and art historians but also engineers and psychologists. We will process the data in Rome remotely, comparing them with what we have. There will also be doctoral students and undergraduates, we will give space to young people. Our future starts from a distant past“.
“I went to Harvard to study Greek street artists”
Angela Cinalli, winner of a Marie Curie Global scholarship for Greek literature and epigraphy, left with two young children, spurred on by her musician husband who asked for leave
“I won the Marie Curie Global Scholarship for the Ptanois Posin (“Winged Feet”) project in 2018, when I was expecting my second child. I postponed the departure for America, then there was Covid that blocked everything. When it was finally possible to take the plane, I didn’t feel like moving anymore for six months, with two small children. I didn’t think I would be able to organize myself. I was helped by my husband Luca, first flute in the State Police Band, who asked for leave. He was precious, he trusted me and in America he took care of the children, allowing me to study. I had already won a post-doctoral scholarship at Harvard, they were interested in the project and for this I was able to take it forward with them. Ptanois Posin, born in collaboration with prof. Roberto Nicolai of the Department of Ancient Sciences of Sapienza and the Center for Hellenic Studies of Harvard University, he goes in search of those itinerant artists and poets who moved between the cities of Hellenistic Greece, doing readings or street performances. We do not have their texts, except in very few cases, but only inscriptions that document their presence during the city festivals. We are in the field of submerged popular literature, very successful at the time but unfortunately lost. At Harvard I took the digital part forward, developing a site with a dynamic map of the movements of these artists: in only three regions we have already found 1100. My future? I could become a researcher, as foreseen for fellows by the Ministerial Decree 963/2015. Otherwise I’ll go back to teaching, and I wouldn’t mind at all. I’m in tenure – now on leave at the IISS Piaget-Diaz in Rome, which has a fashion address, and we Italian and history teachers have a lot of space, we help the kids to develop their ideas “
“I, a classical philologist, at work with computer scientists”
Thanks to the European scholarship, Ilaria Morresi is part of a multidisciplinary team that takes care of the critical edition, paper and digital, of the Latin grammar of Prisciano, lived in the sixth century AD.
“The bookworm? It no longer exists. Today the research work is very complex, different skills are needed, continuous updating is essential, and one can no longer remain alone bent over books. I am a classical philologist, I have always loved Latin and Greek, since high school. I graduated from the Normale di Pisa, where I also did my doctorate, then I participated in the selection of researchers who would collaborate with Professor Michela Rosellini for the Pages project on Ars Prisciandi, the last and richest textbook of Latin grammar, in 18 books, written in the sixth century AD We are fifteen, the prestigious European ERC scholarship covers five years of research. Among us there are philologists, paleographers but also humanistic and physical computer scientists, who have developed a system for the multispectral analysis of very damaged texts. Hundreds of manuscripts have survived from Prisciano’s work, which was a bestseller in the Middle Ages and had great importance in the history of European culture, and it is also worth studying because it has transmitted fragments of lost literary works to us. At the end of the research, a critical edition in double version, paper and digital, will be released. Meanwhile at Sapienza I also teach Latin language and literature, it is part of my fixed-term contract. I’m only at the beginning, and I really hope to be able to continue ».
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