Medea Norsa

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Medea Norsa (1890s)

Medea Norsa (born August 26, 1877 in Trieste , Austria-Hungary , † July 28, 1952 in Florence ) was an Italian classical philologist and papyrologist .

Life

Medea Norsa grew up in Trieste, which was then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire . She was the eldest daughter of a Jewish father and a Catholic (Slovenian) mother. After attending the Lyceum, Norsa took private lessons from 1899 to 1900 to prepare for the final exams, which she took at the grammar school in Koper . She then studied at the University of Vienna and the University of Florence (from 1901), where she was particularly influenced by the Romanist Pio Rajna and the Graecist Girolamo Vitelli . Vitelli's promotion in particular was decisive for her further career, during which Norsa turned primarily to papyrology. On July 4, 1906, she was with a thesis on the Ajax of Sophocles and the Seven Against Thebes of Aeschylus doctorate .

After graduating, Norsa went on research trips and then worked as a teacher of ancient languages ​​at a lyceum in Florence. During this time she also continued her collaboration with Vitelli, who entrusted her with the editing and interpretation of papyri in his Papyrological Institute. From 1920 to 1940 Norsa was delegated by the Società Italiana per la ricerca dei papiri greci e latini in Egitto to purchase Greek and Latin papyri in Egypt. From 1926 she also held courses at the University of Florence, from 1933 papyrological exercises at the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa . After Vitelli's death (1935) she headed the Papyrological Institute. During the occupation of Italy by the German Wehrmacht (1943/44) she withdrew from the public because of her Jewish origins. During a bombing raid on March 23, 1944, her apartment, including her private library, was destroyed. In addition, various illnesses made her work more difficult in the post-war period.

The first professorship for papyrology in Italy, which the University of Pisa had promised her several times since 1941, was not granted to her. Medea Norsa never married and died on July 28, 1952 at the age of 74, lonely in a nuns' institute in Florence.

recognition

Medea Norsa was the only woman among the leading papyrologists of her time. Some very important discoveries, also on the free antiquarian market, are due to her in-depth knowledge of the Greek language, through which she recognized important texts quickly and reliably. One of her most famous discoveries was the fragment of a poem by the famous Greek poet Sappho , which was written on potsherds and was therefore called the Sappho- Ostracon . Its publication in 1937 brought it great international recognition.

She was a member of the Società Colombaria Fiorentina in Florence , the Pontifical Roman Academy of Archeology , the German Archaeological Institute and the Association Internationale de Papyrologues in Brussels . She was the first female member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences in Munich to receive more than just an honorary title and remained the only one throughout her life.

In 2008 the Italian papyrologist Silvia Strassi founded the Center for Papyrus Research Medea Norsa in Trieste .

Fonts (selection)

  • with Girolamo Vitelli a. a .: Papiri greci e latini (Pubblicazione della Società Italiana per la ricerca dei papiri greci e latini in Egitto) . 14 volumes, Florence 1912–1957
  • Papiri greci delle collezioni italiane . 3 volumes, Rome 1929–1946
  • with Girolamo Vitelli: Il Papiro Vaticano Greco 11: 1. Phaborinou peri phyges. 2. Registri fondiari della Marmarica . Rome 1931
  • with Girolamo Vitelli: Διηγήσεις di poemi di Callimaco in un papiro di Tebtynis . Florence 1934
  • La scrittura letteraria greca dal sec. IV aC all'VIII d. C. Florence 1939

literature

  • Daniela Crescenzio : Italian Walks in Munich, Volume III - Italian Women in Munich , IT-INERARIO, Rosenheim 2013, ISBN 978-3-9813046-6-4 .
  • Dino Pieraccioni : Ricordo di Medea Norsa. Dieci anni dalla morte . In: Belfagor . Volume 17 (1962), pp. 482-485
  • Giorgio Zalateo : Medeae Norsa centesimo die natali memoria et recordatio . In: Actes du XV Congrès International de Papyrologie IV . Brussels 1979, pp. 274f.
  • Mario Capasso : Omaggio a Medea Norsa . Naples 1993
  • Luciano Canfora : Materiali per la biografia di Medea Norsa . In: Quaderni di Storia . Volume 61 (2005), pp. 303-308
  • Gino Bandinelli: Medea Norsa: Gli ani giovanili (1877-1912) . In: Mario Capasso (Ed.): Hermae. Scholars and Scholarship in Papyrology . Pisa 2007, pp. 207-221 (Fig. 207). I.
  • Mario Capasso: Medea Norsa: Gli anni della maturità (1906–1952) . In: Derselbe (Ed.): Hermae. Scholars and Scholarship in Papyrology . Pisa 2007, pp. 223-241. I.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Daniela Crescenzio: Italian Walks in Munich, Volume III - Italian Women in Munich , IT-INERARIO, Rosenheim 2013, ISBN 978-3-9813046-6-4 , pp. 105–114
personal data
SURNAME Norsa, Medea
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Norsa, Medea Vittoria Irma (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian classical philologist and papyrologist
DATE OF BIRTH August 26, 1877
PLACE OF BIRTH Trieste
DATE OF DEATH July 28, 1952
Place of death Florence