Going Sightreading in the Wonderous World of Late and Medieval Latin Literature
In this group, we will be reading excerpts from Late and Medieval Latin literature at sight. The authors chosen range from old favorites, such as Walter Map and Iacobus de Voragine, to figures that are rarely read in the English-speaking world, such as Vincent of Krakow and Johannes de Alta Silva. We hope to present you with some delectable morsels that may be enjoyed in two hours or less and will leave you with a greater appreciation for all that Medieval literature can be, including whimsical fairy tales, fire and brimstone sermons, saints and sinners, kings and conquerors, and everything in between.
The group is aimed at intermediate Latinists, those who have attained functional capability in Latin but still struggle with the syntax at times or could do with a refresher course. We will not be drilling morphology, but we will be happy to address grammatical questions as they arise with neither shaming nor caning. You are surely not the only one wondering just what kind of genitive that is. Latin is not easy, but it is our aim to help you cross the threshold from treating each sentence as a puzzle to reading intuitively and at speed and only occasionally breaking out the grammatical can-opener. This is a skill that one can only develop through exposure and experience, which is what we provide in a stress-free, non-judgmental environment.
The group meets virtually on Fridays at 20:00 CEST (19:00 GMT; 14:00 EST; 13:00 CST) on Zoom, starting on September 8 2023. Late-comers welcome. Meetings run for ca. 90 minutes. Your hosts are post-docs in Late and Medieval Latin. The language of instruction is English and we translate into English, but the instructors also speak the main modern European languages required for studying Late and Medieval Latin Philology.
If interested in visiting or joining, contact Willum Westenholz (e-mail).
More information is found in the program of the 2024 WPU conference.