Renaissance Latin

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Renaissance Latin
Uffizi Gallery, by Andrea del Castagno, c. 1450.
Native toNo native speakers, used by the administrations and universities of numerous countries
RegionEurope
EraEvolved from Medieval Latin in the 14th century; creating Neo-Latin used until present
Early forms
Latin alphabet 
Official status
Official language in
Most Roman Catholic countries
Regulated byThe community of scholars at the earliest universities
Language codes
ISO 639-3–
GlottologNone

Renaissance Latin is a name given to the distinctive form of Literary Latin style developed during the European Renaissance of the fourteenth to fifteenth centuries, particularly by the Renaissance humanism movement. This style of Latin is regarded as the first phase of the standardised and grammatically "Classical" Neo-Latin which continued through the 16th–19th centuries,[1][2][3] and was used as the language of choice for authors discussing subjects considered sufficiently important to merit an international (i.e., pan-European) audience.

Ad fontes

Gothic"—for them, a term of abuse—and believed instead that ancient Latin
from the Roman period had to form the basis for judging what was a grammatical and accurate style of Latin.

Some 16th-century Ciceronian humanists also sought to purge written Latin of medieval developments in its

reconstructed version of classical Latin
pronunciation, even though one can deduce from his works that he himself used the ecclesiastical pronunciation.

The humanist plan to remake Latin was largely successful, at least in education. Schools taught the humanistic spellings, and encouraged the study of the texts selected by the humanists, to the large exclusion of later Latin literature. On the other hand, while humanist Latin was an elegant literary language, it became much harder to write books about law, medicine, science or contemporary politics in Latin while achieving the higher standards of grammatical accuracy and stylistical fluency. Scholar Jürgen Leonhardt noted how these high standards changed speakers' relationship with the language: "Whereas during the Middle Ages, Latin had an instrumental function in human communications and in peoples' understanding of the world, for the humanists, the act of mastering the language became a measure of human self-perfection. In the end, the most important difference between medieval and humanist Latin may well have been the time and effort to learn it."[4]

Renaissance Latin works and authors

14th century

For 14th-century works and authors that are still medieval in outlook (practically all non-Italians), see Medieval Latin.

15th century

Incunables by language.[5] Latin dominated printed book production in the 15th century by a wide margin.

16th-century

References

  1. ^ "When we talk about "Neo-Latin", we refer to the Latin … from the time of the early Italian humanist Petrarch (1304-1374) up to the present day" Knight & Tilg 2015, p. 1
  2. ^ Sidwell, Keith Classical Latin-Medieval Latin-Neo Latin in Knight & Tilg 2015, pp. 13–26; others, throughout.
  3. ^ Butterfield 2011, p. 303
  4. ^ Leonhardt 2009, p. 229
  5. ^ "Incunabula Short Title Catalogue". British Library. Retrieved 2 March 2011.

Further reading

  • Cranz, F. Edward, Virginia Brown, and Paul Oslar Kristeller, eds. 1960–2003. Catalogus translationum et commentariorum: Medieval and Renaissance Latin Translations and Commentaries; Annotated Lists and Guides. 8 vols. Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press.
  • D’Amico, John F. 1984. “The Progress of Renaissance Latin Prose: The Case of Apuleianism.” Renaissance Quarterly 37: 351–92.
  • Deitz, Luc. 2005. "The Tools of the Trade: A Few Remarks on Editing Renaissance Latin Texts." Humanistica Lovaniensia 54: 345-58.
  • Hardie, Philip. 2013. “Shepherds’ Songs: Generic Variation in Renaissance Latin Epic.” In Generic Interfaces in Latin Literature: Encounters, Interactions and Transformations. Edited by Theodore D. Paphanghelis, Stephen J. Harrison, and Stavros Frangoulidis, 193–204. Berlin: De Gruyter.
  • Houghton, L. B. T. 2013. “Renaissance Latin Love Elegy.” In The Cambridge Companion to Latin Love Elegy. Edited by Thea S. Thorsen, 290–305. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
  • Lohr, C. H. 1974. “Renaissance Latin Aristotle Commentaries: Authors A–B.” Studies in the Renaissance 21: 228–89.
  • McFarlane, I. D., ed. and trans. 1980. Renaissance Latin Poetry. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press.
  • Parker, Holt. 2012. “Renaissance Latin Elegy.” In A Companion to Roman Love Elegy. Edited by Barbara K. Gold, 476–90. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
  • Perosa, Alessandro, and John Sparrow, eds. 1979. Renaissance Latin Verse: An Anthology. London: Duckworth.

History of Latin

Neo-Latin overviews

See also

External links

Library resources about
Renaissance Latin
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