AUTHORS: Laura Bigoni, Davide Dainese, Anna Mambelli,

WORK PACKAGE: WP8

URL: https://iris.unimore.it/handle/11380/1389090

Keywords: Bible; Septuagint; Ancient Christian Literature; Intertextuality; Digital Humanities; Artificial Intelligence; Large Language Models

Abstract

uBIQUity and Resilient Septuagint are transdisciplinary research projects linked by common aims, which originate from the methodological framework of the Historical and Theological Lexicon of the Septuagint (ed. by Eberhard Bons and Daniela Scialabba, in collaboration with Anna Mambelli; 4 vols., Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2020–). Resilient Septuagint, an Italian Research Project of Relevant National Interest (PRIN 2022), focuses on the semantics of “killing” and “healing” in the Septuagint (Qo/Eccl 3:3) and its reception in Patristic and Late Antique sources (3rd cent. BCE – 5th cent. CE). uBIQUity, which incorporates the “BI” of the Bible(s) and the “QU” of the Qur’ān in its title, is part of the larger PNRR project ITSERR – Italian Strengthening of the ESFRI RI RESILIENCE funded by European Union-NextGenerationEU (NRRP, Mission 4, Component 2, Project Code: IR0000014, CUP: B53C22001770006), and aims at investigating the sacred texts of Chrstianity and Islam in different environments and historical periods through two huge corpora: Greek and Latin Christian commentaries on the Bible(s) written from the Patristic age until the Late Byzantine period, and classical commentaries on the Qur’ān written in Arabic (tafāsīr) from the rise of Islam until the 15th century. By interweaving Computer Science and the Humanities, uBIQUity aims to develop a new research tool that can identify with a high degree of accuracy quotations/allusions to the Bible(s) and the Qur’ān in Christian and Islamic commentaries. Intertextual references, conscious or unconscious, work as invisible “places of memory”, making the sacred texts “ubiquitous”.