Latin Language and Latin Culture: From Ancient to Modern Times

The love-hate nature of the relations between England and Italy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries is well known. Ever since Henry VIII broke with Rome after Pope Clement VII refused to allow his divorce, things Italian were a popular object of satire and general disdain. An ever-increasing British nationalism founded on political, religious, and aesthetic principles during the seventeenth century fanned the flames of anti-Italian sentiment. This nationalism, newly consolidated in the seventeenth century by the ambitions of the Stuart monarchs to destroy Parliament, was intimately connected with English Protestantism. As Samuel Kliger has argued, the triumph of the Goths—Protestant Englishmen's Germanic ancestors—over Roman tyranny in antiquity became for seventeenth-century England a symbol of democratic success. Moreover, observes Kliger, an influential theory rooted in the Reformation, the “translatio imperii ad Teutonicos,” emphasized traditional German racial qualities—youth, vigor, manliness, and moral purity—over those of Latin culture—torpor, decadence, effeminacy, and immorality—and contributed to the modern constitution of the supreme role of the Goths in history. The German translatio implied an analogy between the conquest of the Roman Empire by the Goths (under Charlemagne) and the rallying of the humanist-reformers of northern Europe (e.g., Luther) for religious freedom, understood as liberation from Roman priestcraft; that is, “the translatio crystallized the idea that humanity was twice ransomed from Roman tyranny and depravity—in antiquity by the Goths, in modern times by their descendants, the German reformers…the epithet ‘Gothic’ became not only a polar term in political discussion, a trope for the ‘free,’ but also in religious discussion a trope for all those spiritual, moral, and cultural values contained for the eighteenth century in the single word ‘enlightenment.’”

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Glossa do enigm biskupa Aldhema (ok. 639-709)

Studia Warmińskie ◽

10.31648/sw.300 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 48 ◽

pp. 275-289

Author(s):

Małgorzata Chudzikowska-Wołoszyn

Keyword(s):

Original Writing ◽

Middle Ages ◽

Anglo Saxon ◽

Early Middle Ages ◽

Latin Language ◽

Roman Culture ◽

Celtic Culture ◽

Latin Culture ◽

The Church

Though the Latin language appeared on British Island in common with Roman Invasion, exactly after 55 AD, yet his real popularization had become until after 597 AD, in which the Romans missionary gets to the Anglo-Saxon Canterbury and started great evangelization on this lands. The British Clergy and Aristocracy were very quickly mastered the arcana of Latin language which in this days was a synonym of a culture and a imperial traditions. Anglo-Saxon like any another nation managed to subordinate to themselves the Church language and not resign at the same time about an old traditions and fondness. Remarkable thing is that the anglo-saxon literature was creating on the spur of the three abnormally valuable inspiration source – the Roman, Irish and nativ influence – settled in Celtic culture. Creativeness of an Adhelm who was writing about VII and VIII AD was perfectly mirrored the colour of medieval culture of British Island. His corpus of a hundred riddles display over the reader unprecedented in early middle ages universal. In Sherborne bishop enigmas we can find an Irish boldness which didn’t want to fight with the Greek and Roman paganism but on the contrary it foster an advancement of Christian latin culture. In riddles we can find an Irish culture as well which cherish the bard tradition, attached attention to art of word and found an likes in that what is mannerism and vivid. And finally the Roman culture along with latin alphabet and monastery scholarship contribute to final combined all of drifts forming the original writing of Adhelm.

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The Intrinsic and Extrinsic. Latinitas in the Research of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania

Literatūra ◽

10.15388/litera.2020.3.6 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 62 (3) ◽

pp. 93-110

Author(s):

Skirmantas Knieža

Keyword(s):

Cultural History ◽

Cultural Models ◽

The State ◽

Customary Law ◽

Language And Culture ◽

Latin Language ◽

Cultural Code ◽

Latin Culture ◽

Grand Duchy Of Lithuania ◽

Grand Duchy

This paper analyses the reception of Latin language and culture in the research of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. It focuses on the works of various disciplines – social and cultural history, literary research, art criticism, etc. – and seeks to identify the recurring themes, symbols and topics that comprise homogenous narratives and interpretations. They consolidate the findings of different fields of study and thus allow to analyse the Latinitas of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania as an integral part of the political community’s identity.The symbols of Latin language and culture can be identified as a basis for a Shift from oral to written culture. It conveys the ideas of order and organisation, as it transforms customary law into a codified one, a natural religion into that based on Scripture, etc. It alters the society as well, mainly because writing and written culture marks a shift in identity and behaviour. Also, by focusing on social and educational aspects, the Shift marks an institutional change, which permeates the developments of the state and society as a whole.The multipolar cultural field of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania is described by four cultural models – Polish, Lithuanian, Ruthenian, and Latin. The metaphor of Interaction shows how Latin culture and language is seen as one of the four ideological alternatives that legitimize the state, dynasty and sovereignty.Thirdly, the metaphor of Tension depicts Latinitas as part of the dichotomy between Eastern and Western civilizations by expressing the symbolical content of the latter. This narrative also emphasizes the internal confessional disputes inside the Western Church, and by exploiting the specific understanding of the Renaissance humanism, it becomes a means to understand sociocultural conflicts of the Early Modern state.The interpretation of Latinitas as a communication channel is nested under the metaphor of Medium. Works in this category usually portray Latin language as an expression of a social, economic, political, etc. status quo, which differs in each European state. Latin culture thus helps to articulate national interests and identity, and enables the cultural exchange among the Western countries as well.Finally, by emphasizing the poor literacy of the society and only limited possibilities to learn Latin and acknowledge its cultural code, researchers portray Latinitas as a Secret. The speakers and writers of Latin form a hermetic group, possessing the knowledge of a cultural matrix inaccessible to others. The dignity of Latin language also strengthens the status of vernacular languages, and thus accumulates the process of identity formation.These five narratives exemplify how Latinitas is embedded within the economic, political, and cultural activities of the society. It also depicts the different ways by which it becomes an integrating principle of the identity of the intellectual and political classes in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. It provides an account of Roman descent, sustains the claim for political sovereignty, and indicates the civilizing process. By adopting those five different narratives, researchers may further analyse Latinitas not only as a separate cultural layer, but as a part of social identity as well.

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