Department of Classics
Howell Hall 202A
x27647; mlaffert@email.unc.edu
Office Hours: MT 1:30-3:00
MWF 10:00-10:50
AR 118
The purpose of this class is to introduce advanced students of the Middle Ages to Medieval Latin language and literature. By the end of the course, you should be familiar with Medieval Latin morphology, syntax and vocabulary. You should also be familiar with the history of Medieval Latin and be able to translate passages (both already read and previously unseen) from a range of major Late Latin and Medieval Latin genres, styles and authors.
Course Requirements:
Students must attend class regularly. To be properly prepared you should be able to translate (without referring to a written translation or notes) and be able to explain the grammar. Translations should render the Latin into literal but idiomatic English which reveals an understanding of the Latin grammar without obscuring the English meaning.
One of the major purposes of this course is to prepare you to pursue your research interests in the Middle Ages. Students often find themselves in archives and libraries with only a pocket dictionary. Building a large vocabulary will clearly be useful. In addition, practice in reading at sight helps prepare students to be able to grapple with an unfamiliar text, by developing strategies for determining the meaning of unfamiliar vocabulary and a working understanding of Medieval Latin syntax. We will spend a certain amount of time each week with texts you have not prepared.
Examinations: In addition to weekly translation
quizzes, there will be mid-term and final translation examinations, covering
both passages you have seen and passages you have not seen before. Please
note that you will not be able to bring a dictionary to the exams.
Texts:
Sidwell, Keith. Reading Medieval Latin. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.
This textbook will be our reader for the course. It includes introductions to Medieval Latin grammar and orthography, and has a vocabulary at the back.
Einhard.
Vita Karoli Magni. Ed. John F.
Collins. Bryn Mawr Latin Commentaries. Bryn Mawr, 1984.
Hrotsvitha,
Dulcitius and Paphnutius. Ed.
Paul Pascal. Bryn Mawr Latin Commentaries. Bryn Mawr, 1989.
Perpetua.
Passio sanctarum Pepertuae et Felicitatis. Ed. James Halporn. Bryn Mawr
Latin Commentaries. Bryn Mawr, 1984.
Recommended
Reference:
Mantello, F.A.C., and A.G. Rigg. Medieval Latin: An Introduction and Bibliographical Guide. Washington: Catholic University of America Press, 1996.
This is one of the most useful reference works that a medievalist can own. In addition to introductions to the development and history of Medieval Latin language and literature, it also includes sections by specialists on the varieties of Medieval Latin, including both the literary and the pragmatic and technical.
You will also need a pocket dictionary. When working on material not in Sidwell’s text, you may find it practical to work in close proximity to a copy of Lewis and Short and other more specialized dictionaries (see bibliography). These dictionaries are available both in the Classics Library and in the reference room at Davis. The Lewis and Short is accessible on-line through the Perseus project.
Participation 10%
Weekly Quizzes 20%
Mid-term 30 %
Final Examination 40%
Week 1: Early Christian Latin
August 21 Introduction
August 23 Passio Perpetuae et Felicitatis (=PPF) 2-5
Rigg, in Mantello and Rigg, pp. 71-105
August 26 PPF 6-10.5
August 28 PPF 10.6-16
August 30 PPF 17-21
Recommended Secondary Literature:
Dronke, Peter. Women Writers of the Middle Ages : a critical study of texts from Perpetua (203) to Marguerite Porete (1310). Cambridge University Press, 1984.
Farrell, Joseph.
Latin Language and Latin Culture From Ancient to Modern Times. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2001. Pp. 74-83.
Rives, James.
“The Piety of a Persecutor.” Journal of Early Christian Studies 4
(1996): 1-25.
Shaw, Brent. “The Passion of Perpetua,” Past & Present 139 (1993): 1-45.
Herman, Jósef. Vulgar Latin. Trans. Roger Wright. (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2000).
Week 3: The Bible
September
2: Labor Day
September 4: Vulgate: Canticum canticorum 1.1-16; Luke 23.1-56 (Sidwell 3.2; 3.3)
Sheerin, in Mantello and Rigg, pp. 137-56.
September 6: Vetus Latina: Luke 23.1-56 (Handout); Vulgate: 1 Corinthians 13: 1-13 (Sidwell 3.3; 3.4); Gallican: Psalm 22 (23): 106 (Sidwell, 2.2)
The Biblia Vulgata has been put on-line by the ARTFL Project: Multi-Lingual Bibles.
Brock, Sebastian. “Aspects of Translation Technique in Antiquity,” Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies 20 (1979), pp. 69-87.
Tkacz, Catherine. Labor tam utilis: The Creation of the Vulgate,” Vigiliae Christianae 50 (1996), pp. 42-72.
Editions of the Vetus Latina:
Bibliorum Sacrorum Latinae versiones antiquae. Ed. Pierre Sabatier. Turnhout: Brepolis, 1976 (repr. of 1793 ed.).
Itala: Das Neue Testament in altlateinischer Überlieferung. Ed. Adolf Jülicher, ed. al. Berlin, New York, De Gruyter, 1963-1977.
Vetus Latina Institute. Vetus Latina: die Reste der altlateinischen Bibel. Freiburg, Herder, 1949-. Benedictine monastery of Beuron.
Editions of the Vulgate:
Biblia Sacra iuxta latinam vulgatam versionem ad codicum fidem. Rome: Typis Polyglottis Vaticanis, 1926-94.
Biblia sacra iuxta vulgatam versionem. Ed. Robert Weber et al. 3rd ed. Stuttgart: Württembergische Bibelanstalt, 1983.
September 9 The Mass of the Roman Rite (available on-line). Please note that this is a facing page translation. It will be in your best interest to keep the English covered as you work through the text.
Sheerin, in Rigg and Mantello, pp. 157-82.
September 11 Tridentine Mass; Magnificat and Ave Maria (Handout)
September 13 Ambrose, In nocte natalis domini (Sidwell 2.3); Venantius Fortunatus (available on line).
Sheerin, in Rigg and Mantello, pp. 597-606
September 16 Caesarius of Arles (Sidwell 5.1.i-ii, iv)
September 18 Cassiodorus, Institutiones (Sidwell 1.2.i, iii);
Benedict Regula 16-17 (Sidwell 2.1.i-ii)
September 20 Benedict’s Regula 18, 38 (Sidwell 2.1.iii; Sidwell 1.1[a]);
Isidore’s Regula, De Codicus (Sidwell 1.1[b])
September 23 Columbanus (Sidwell, 6.2)
Adomnán, Vita Columba (Sidwell 6.3.i-ii)
Townsend, in Rigg and Mantello, pp. 618-28
September 25 Aldhelm, De virginitate
(Sidwell, 7.1.i-iii) and Riddles (7.1.i-iii)
September 27 Bede, Historia Ecclesiastica
(Sidwell, 7.2[a].i-iii); Bede, Commentary on Luke 23.13-18 (Sidwell
7.2[b])
Please read the entire text in translation on reserve.
September 30 VK 1-4
October 2 VK 18-20
October 4 VK 21-25
October 7 VK 26-29
October 9 VK 30-32
For the more experienced students:
Charlemagne, Capitulare (Sidwell, 9.1),
Alcuin, Letter to Charlemagne (Sidwell, 9.2[a]) and O vos est aetas (Sidwell, 9.2[b])
21 October
11 Mid-term Examination
Please Read the entire text in English on reserve.
October 14 Paphnutius, pp. 23-25
Wright, in Rigg and Mantello, pp. 574-5811
October 16 Paphnutius, pp. 26-28
October 18:
Fall Break
Recommended Reading:
Dronke, Peter. Women writers of the Middle Ages : a critical study of texts from Perpetua (203) to Marguerite Porete (1310). Cambridge University Press, 1984.
Gold, Barbara K. "Hrotswitha Writes Herself: Clamor validus Gandeshemensis." Sex and Gender in Medieval and Renaissance Texts: The Latin Tradition (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1997): 41-70.
Hrotsvit of Gandersheim, : rara avis in Saxonia? Ed. Katharina M. Wilson. Anne Arbor: Medieval and Renaissance Collegium, 1987.
October 21 Paphnutius, pp. 29-31
October 23 Paphnutius, pp. 32-34
October 24 Paphnutius, pp. 35-37
October 28 Paphnutius, pp. 38-40
October 30 Paphnutius, pp. 41-46
November 1 Paphnutius, p. 47
November 4 Hildegard, Scivias (Sidwell, 17.5.i-4)
Dinzelbacher, in Rigg and Mantello, pp. 668-693
November 6 Joachim of Fiore (Handout)
November 8 Joachim of Fiore (Handout)
November 11 Baudri of Bourgueil, Historia Hierosolymitana (Sidwell 13.I.1); Gesta Francorum (Sidwell 13.I.3)
Ray, in Rigg and Mantello, pp. 618-628.
November 13 William Fitzstephen (Sidwell, 19.I.1.i-vi)
November 15 Gerald of Wales, Expugnatio Hiberniae (Sidwell 19.II.2); Rahewin, Gesta Frederici (Sidwell 19.III.3.i-v)
November 18 Anselm of Canterbury, Proslogion (Sidwell 14.2.i-v)
November 20 John of Salisbury, Monologion 16.1.i-ii); Abelard, Sic et Non (Sidwell, 16.2)
November 22 Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermon on the Song of Songs (Sidwell, 18.2.1-2); Peter the Venerable, Letter to Bernard of Claivaux (Sidwell, 17.1.i-ii)
Kienzle and d’Avray, in Rigg and Mantello, pp. 659-69.
November 25 Bernard of Clairvaux (Sidwell 17.2.i-iii)
November 27 Abelard, Historia calamitatum (Sidwell, 17.3.i-v); Heloise, Letter to Abelard (Sidwell 17.4)
Haseldine, pp. 650-658, in Rigg and Mantello
November 29: Thanksgiving Break
December 2 Archpoet, Fama tuba dante sonum and Peter of Blois, Quod amicus suggerit (Sidwell 20.3-4)
McDonough, in Rigg and Mantello, pp. 589-596
December 4 Carmina Cantabrigiensia, Est unus locus (Sidwell 15.1.b)
Carmina Burana (Sidwell 20.2.i-iii)