Sessions will focus on a selected number of Neo-Latin authors in order to build familiarity with their particular styles and rhetorical practices. In the first of the two terms, the readings will include extracts from the works of renaissance schoolteachers and Francis Petrarch (1304-1374) and aim to refresh applying the basics of Latin. In the second term students will read extracts from Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536) and Leonardo Bruni (1360-1444). The study of these authors will introduce participants to the particularities of Renaissance Latin and, at the same time, to the conventions of some of the most important genres practised by Neo-Latin writers, such as letter-writing, the philosophical dialogue, or the satirical speech. The outline for Term 1 is as follows:

1-3 School Colloquia

• Pueriles confabulatiunculae - Gallus
• Confabulationes - Schottenius
• Dialogi Sacri - Castellion

 4-6: Epistolary writing

• Cicero’s letters, in Sturm’s edition
• Petrarch, introduction to his collection of letters (Fam. I.1)
• Petrarch’s letter to Cicero (Fam. XXIV, 3)

 7-8 Narrative

• Petrarch’s Ascent of Mt. Ventoux (Familiares. IV, 1)

9 Christmas texts

• comparison of Vulgate and Erasmus's Novum Testamentum omne (1516)
• Adeste fideles

The two terms may be taken independently of each other.

Places are limited, and the availability of this course is subject to a minimum enrolment. All classes will be taught virtually via Microsoft Teams on Mondays, 5-6.30pm (UK time), with the first class due to commence on Monday 9th October 2023. Term 2 will start on Monday 8th January 2024. To apply, please compete the short application form here (tab also on top left of page). Deadline for applications is Monday 18th September 2023.

Participants will pay £200 for the course before the beginning of term. Participants whose institution belongs to the Newberry Library Consortium may be eligible to receive CRS Consortium Grants to cover the cost of the course. (Contact your local consortium representative for details.) Warwick PhD Students will not have to pay the course fees.

Former students say:

The classes have been really helpful by covering the basics and applying them to the sort of Latin documents we are likely to come across in our research. Studying Latin this way is much more relevant - and can even be fun!

The best way to learn; friendly, relaxed and informal but with a serious purpose. It is essential for my Art History studies that I improve my lapsed Latin and I appreciate the flexible structure of teaching which adapts the coursework to the needs of the current group.