Medieval Latin Survey

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

In this course, students will read a wide variety of Latin texts from the Middle Ages, both prose and poetry, both stylized rhetorical texts and private documents, texts in a highly technical language, or texts in specific dialects and sociolects of medieval Latin. A different geographical focus will be chosen for each semester. The general methodological approach is careful and linguistically sensitive close-reading, with various other strategies of reading and criticism applied throughout the semester. The main course goal is to provide students from various branches of medieval studies (graduate students and advanced undergraduates) with a core knowledge in medieval Latin and the philological analysis of Latin texts, which may serve them in their scholarly work in whichever area of the Western Middle Ages. This includes proficiency in the language itself, but also a basic knowledge of subjects such as intertextuality, textual criticism, manuscript studies, rhetoric, allegorical language, literary genres, metrics and prose rhythm.