Medieval Mosaic: A Book of Medieval Latin Readings
Medieval Latin has long suffered from a history of misinformation that relegates its study often to the corners of pious seminaries or requisite graduate school courses. Classicists have long decried Medieval Latin as the regrettable devolution of a formerly glorious language. Such an attitude is, of course, as fallacious as it is ill-informed, and the perspicacious scholar of Latin has realized the wealth of delightful material there is available in the corpus of 'medieval Latin' for study and instruction, and the great number of medieval texts that will delight, amuse, touch, and inspire the eager Latinist. In hisMedieval Mosaic: A Book of Medieval Latin Readings, A. W. Godfrey has afforded the student of Latin in both high school and college the opportunity to sample some of the best and most beloved Latin Literature from Middle Ages, and the generosity of his selection is assurance that there will be a rich variety of textual appeal. To be sure, from the 'age of faith,' many of the readings assume a religious or miraculous cast, but that should not deter anyone from use of the book: such readings are the authentic voice of the era, and to hold fast to historical accuracy, a book of Medieval Latin readings would be fraudulent if they were not readings incorporating religious sentiments. However there are also other genres represented inMedieval Mosaic: the earthy poems of folk life from theCarmina Burana; the self-absorbed musings of the philosopher Abelard in his memoirHistory of my Misfortunes, and the colorful recollections of the indiscreet Gregory of Tours in hisHistory of the Franks. Godfrey also performs a great service to the Latin student by including material from every medieval century, the fourth the fifteenth, so that students are able not only to enjoy a wide survey of Medieval Latin material, but also to observe the subtle shifts in the Latin language as it moved progressively away from common parlance and into the revered halls of cathedral schools and universities. The collection of readings is prefaced with a perhaps too brief review of Medieval Latin philology, but, with the student of classical Latin in mind, Godfrey demonstrates some of the syntatical and semantic shifts that occurred in the language naturally over time. Each page is footed with a simple apparatus of the specifics of translation, or clarification of theme or imagery in the 'Supra' reading; each reading is prefaced with a brief mention of historical context of both author (if known) and the content to be read. The volume closes with abbreviated addenda that comprise a list of specifically Medieval Latin words, and a bibliography of medieval history and Medieval Latin anthologies: one would have hoped for lists of wider scope and annotation. Nonetheless,Medieval Mosaicis an appropriate and engaging compilation for use by intermediate Latin students, and it is a wonderful venue with which to introduce students to the notion of Latin as an organic idiom, one that did not die with the passing of Tacitus or Lucan, but persisted for centuries in diverse and novel venues. --June-Ann Greeley, The Classical Outlook