No prerequisite is mandatory and the course is open to all. It is advisable, though, to have either the exam of Storia della filosofia medievale or of Storia medievale under the belt. It may be helpful to have previous knowledge in history of religions and a basic biblical culture. It may be really helpful to have previously read the Biblical book of Job (it is recommended the edition of Gianfranco Ravasi, issued in different forms by publishers BUR or EDB).

The book of Job, the trials of righteous and divine providence: Moses Maimonides' interpretation and its Fortleben in Latin Scholastic theologians Thomas Aquinas and Albert the Great.

Throughout Early and High Middle Ages and beyond, until the first half of the 13th century, the exegesis of the book of Job in the Latin West is dominated by Gregory the Great's voluminous Moralia in Iob, a forest of allegorical-spiritual interpretations centered on the sufferings through which the righteous is tested, seen as stages of a journey to Christian perfection. Around the middle of the 13th century this moralized way of reading the book of Job gives way to the programmatically ad litteram commentaries by Thomas Aquinas and Albert the Great. To interpret ad litteram entails not only greater realism (nurtured by Aristotle's natural science), but also a strong focus on the literary structures and registers.
Behind the exegesis of both Dominicans, one can see the fruitful blueprint of ideas drawn from Jewish thinker Moses Maimonides' (12th c.) Guide of the Perplexed. In fact, on the wake of Maimonides, both interpreters understand the book of Job essentially as a reflection on providence and its inscrutability. This theological shift (from the theme of exhortation to patience in trials, typical of Gregorian tradition, to that of the suffering of the just as a critical questioning addressed to every model of divine providence) is obviously in debt with Maimondes' insights in Guide, III, 22-23.

Mosè Maimonide, Guida dei perplessi, a c. di Mauro Zonta, Utet, Torino 2003, pp. 586-99 (libro III, capp.  22-23)

Tommaso di Aquino, Commento al libro di Giobbe: Thomas de Aquino, Expositio super Iob ad litteram, cura et studio Fratrum Praedicatorum, (Opera omnia, t. 26), Sanctae Sabinae, Roma 1965 (The passages to be examined will be translated from Latin into Italian during the lessons)

Alberto Magno, Commento al libro di Giobbe: B. Alberti Magni Commentarii in Iob, ed. Melchior Weiss, Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 1904 (The passages to be examined will be translated from Latin into Italian during the lessons)

Mark Larrimore, The Book of Job: A Biography, Princeton University Press, Princeton-Oxford 2013.

Robert Eisen, The Book of Job in Medieval Jewish Philosophy, Oxford University Press 2007, pp. 43-77.

J.S. Levinger, Maimonides’ Exegesis of the Book of Job, in B. Uffenheimer - H. G. Reventlow (eds.), Creative Biblical Exegesis. Christian and Jewish Hermeneutics through the Centuries, Sheffield Academic Press, Sheffield 1988, pp. 81-88.

Denis Chardonnens, L’homme sous le regard de la providence. Providence de Dieu et condition humaine selon l’Exposition littérale sur le Livre de Job de Thomas d’Aquin, J. Vrin, Paris 1997. [Chi preferisce leggere in francese può portare questo libro in sostituzione di Eisen, Levinger e Meyer] 

Ruth Meyer, A Passionate Dispute Over Divine Providence: Albert the Great’s Commentary on the Book of Job, in F. Harkins - A. Canty (eds.), A Companion to Job in the Middle Ages, Brill, Leiden - Boston 2016, pp. 201-24.

Not-attending students are expected to study the program and, if willing, can write a paper (see bibliography section for details), whose subject is to be decided in advance with the professor (to do this via e-mail is OK). This paper must be sent to the professor before the exam and can be assessed as part of the exam. 

Final oral exam. Individual papers/talks (not mandatory) can be assessed as 'part' of the overall final exam.

https://people.unipi.it/stefano_perfetti/