Giulia Freni

Giulia Freni obtained her bachelor's and master's degrees at the University of Siena, and is currently a doctoral student at the University of Basilicata, Italy. Her doctoral project concerns the preparation of a new edition of Carmen de viribus herbarum, an ancient Greek poem dedicated to plants and their magical-medicinal uses.

The project

Title: Il Carmen de viribus herbarum. Edizione critica, traduzione e commento

The Carmen de viribus herbarum, composed by 216 hexameters, is an anonym poem about a physician who teaches a young man the virtues of 17 plants. The most important manuscripts of this text are the Codex Vindobonensis Medicus Graecus 1, the MS. M. 652 of the Morgan Library of New York and the Athous Magnae Lavrae Ω 75. The last edition of this poem, and its paraphrase (or scholia), has been published in 1963 by E. Heitsch, so it is necessary a new edition, with a revision of the Greek text. At the same time, it is necessary an Italian translation, which has never been made, and a commentary.

Hosting institution: Sorbonne University

Selective Bibliography

• G. Freni, Piante, pietre e animali tra magia e astrologia, in ACME, vol. 73 n. 2 (2020), pp. 53-69. DOI: https://doi.org/10.13130/2282-0035/15684
• G. Freni, L’impiego di elementi naturali nei rituali affini alla teurgia, in Lexis, vol. 40.1 (2022), pp. 155-178. DOI: http://doi.org/10.30687/Lexis/2724-1564/2022/01/010
• G. Freni, Il folklore lunare nel mondo greco: tra agricoltura, medicina e metamorfosi, in Myrtia, vol. 27 (2022), pp. 26-42. DOI: https://doi.org/10.6018/myrtia.489001
• G. Freni, Rimedi medico-magici da un manoscritto di area siculo-calabra, in S. Modeo, S. D’Angelo, S. Chiara (edd.), Palaia pharmaka. La medicina in Sicilia dalla Preistoria al Medioevo, Edizioni Lussografica, Caltanissetta, 2023, pp. 43-58.
• G. Freni, Herbs as pharmaka: between Medicine, Astrology and Magic, in Studia Ceranea. Journal of the Waldemar Ceran Research Centre for the History and Culture of the Mediterranean Area and South-East Europe, vol. 13 (2023).