Aeneid 13: Four Vergilian Imitators
By Patrick M. Owens
Nearly every book of Vergil’s Aeneid includes the unfinished verses which bespeak the author’s precocious death. The indications that Vergil left his work uncompleted lead some readers to believe that he might have intended to write a thirteenth book, and authors throughout the centuries have themselves composed additional books for the epic. This paper concerns four Neo-Latin imitators of Vergil from across Europe.
The Vernacular in a Latin Guise: Neo-Latin Grammars of the Vernaculars throughout Europe”
By Clementina Marsico
Starting from the end of the XVth century, Latin was the reference language for the study of vernaculars in many European countries.
The Praise of a Pagan: Pseudo-Longinus in 17th‑century Dutch Scholarship
By Wieneke Jansen
Calvin’s Latin
By Carl P. E. Springer
In this paper, I will examine John Calvin’s Latin style, paying special attention to his Institutes of the Christian Religion. While Calvin’s works have been studied extensively over the years, the scholarly attention they have received has been almost exclusively from a theological perspective. In this paper, I want to explore how a consideration of his Latin prose from a literary vantage point may help readers to appreciate how Calvin’s thoughts (res) and the language (verba) he used to express these thoughts are related.
Summum ius, summa injuria: The Function of aequitas in Thomas More’s Utopia and Christopher St. Germain’s Dialogus De Fundamentis Legum Anglie et de Conscientia
By Roger S. Fisher
Thomas More (1478-1535), the humanist scholar and practicing lawyer, describes in his Utopia (1516) an imaginary civilization where there are no lawyers and where the laws are easy for all citizens to understand. Debate over More's intention in writing the Utopia remains sharply divided, and the question whether Thomas More intended the Utopia to be a satirical criticism or a comical parody of contemporary European mores will never be resolved, given the inherent ambiguity in the way in which More presents Hythlodaeus’ account of Utopian society.
Laura Cereta’s In asinarium funus oratio
By Quinn Radziszewski Griffin
Recognized as one of only a handful of female humanists, Laura Cereta of Brescia (1469-1499) produced during her short life a collection of letters and one rather fantastic Latin dialogue entitled In asinarium funus oratio, “On the Funeral of a Donkey.” In this dialogue, Cereta herself appears as an interlocutor, consoling the titular donkey’s acquaintances with a blend of Stoic and Epicurean philosophy while alluding to elements of Apuleius’ The Golden Ass.