Neo-Latin as a literary mediumThe composition of works in Latin prose and verse formed a major part of literary production in Britain between the sixteenth and the eighteenth centuries; the number of works written in Latin during this period should not be underestimated, though it is difficult to provide precise figures as these works are now spread across the world and are not always easily accessible. The authors of this vast body of material include some of the most celebrated names in english literature, for instance sir Thomas more, Francis Bacon, John milton and George Herbert, as well as a host of lesser-known figures. No serious study of literary culture in Britain during this period can afford to neglect the Latin output of poets, prose-writers and playwrights, much of which is accomplished and enjoyable literature in its own right. This volume aims to give an impression of the range and quality of British Neo-Latin writing over the course of these centuries, by presenting a selection of examples that, between them, encompass a variety of literary genres, many different subjects and an assortment of local and historical circumstances.Why did British authors choose to express themselves and to address their readers in a language and in literary forms inherited from ancient rome, rather than (or as well as) in other forms of expression available to them? There are several reasons, any number of which may have been applicable in any particular instance. one is a desire for durability: for much of this period, the triumph of the vernacular, which with hindsight may seem so inevitable, must have appeared far from a foregone conclusion. Literary ventures in english, French and italian, for example, however distinguished, had yet to stand the test of time, whereas the creative achievements of classical antiquity had already endured for a millennium and a half, seemingly offering a ringing endorsement of Horace's claim to have produced 'a monument more lasting than bronze' (monumentum aere perennius, Odes 3.30.1), of Virgil's promise to confer poetic immortality on the subjects of his epic (Aeneid 9.446-9) and of ovid's defiant prediction of his continuing survival despite the ravages of introduction

European Neo-Latin and its development Given the marginal place of Latin today, it is difficult to imagine a world in which this language was a dominant force, as either a spoken or a written phenomenon. in fact, within Western history it is the last two centuries that are anomalous; for Latin was viewed as a perfectly natural linguistic option, and often the most obvious medium, for a vast gamut of subjects, right through the medieval era and up to the end of the eighteenth century. indeed, the period from 800 to 1800 CE has been referred to as Europe's 'Latin millennium' . 1 it is tempting to compare the status of Latin in that period with that which English now enjoys. A still better analogy is modern standard Arabic, which is rooted in the classical period, and so divorced from any spoken vernacular, but is used throughout the Arab world as the language of education and of formal speech and writing.The term 'Neo-Latin' denotes the Latin employed during the second half of this Latin millennium, so from c. 1300 to c. 1800, and, more specifically, a use of this language that attempted to revive the 'real' Latin of the ancient world. The expression 'Neo-Latin' has its detractors: some prefer descriptions such as 'early modern Latin' or 'renaissance Latin' . of course, none of these labels were used at the time in which this kind of Latin flourished; they were coined at a much later stage. 2 Furthermore, any claim that writers of this period were resurrecting an 'authentic' Latinity is susceptible to challenge. Nevertheless, here the term 'Neo-Latin' shall be adopted throughout, as it at least has the advantage of signalling that early modern Latin was of a different order to the Latin of the middle Ages that preceded it.With the arrival of humanism in the period we know today as the renaissance (c. 1350-1600), there was a resurgence in the production of Latin literature throughout Europe, and the Latin language was quickly recalibrated along strictly classical lines. This is not to suggest that medieval Latin should be viewed as an independent language without any relation to 36739.indb 1 02/06/2020 11:14An Anthology of European Neo-Latin Literature 2 the Latin of the romans or indeed to Neo-Latin. 3 many medieval orthographical and syntactical conventions find their way into Neo-Latin texts. Nor was the classicizing impetus of the renaissance entirely new: the medieval period also witnessed attempts to reform Latin in accordance with classical and early Christian norms, during what is sometimes dubbed the Carolingian renaissance (c. 750-815) and again in the twelfth century, above all in France and England. However, from the thirteenth century onwards, reverence for the classics increasingly yielded to other tendencies in the development of Latin: on the one hand, assimilation to the vernacular and, on the other, the growth of new, specialized vocabularies in the courts, chanceries and universities.in reaction, the early humanists then attempted to overhaul what they perceived as the decayed status of the Latin ...