Gesine Manuwald

Stephen Harrison

William M. Barton

Lucy R. Nicholas

Compiled by a team of experts in the field, this volume brings to view an array of Latin texts produced in British universities from c.1500 to 1700. It includes a comprehensive introduction to the production of Neo-Latin and Neo-Greek in the early modern university, the precise circumstances and broader environments that gave rise to it, plus an associated bibliography. 12 high-quality sections, each prefaced by its own short introduction, set forth the Latin (and occasionally Greek) texts and accompanying English translations and notes. Each section provides focused orientation and is arranged in such a way as to ensure the volume's accessibility to scholars and students at all levels of familiarity with Neo-Latin. Passages are taken from documents that were composed in seats of learning across the British Isles, in Oxford, Cambridge, Dublin, Edinburgh and St Andrews, and adduce a wide range of material from orations and disputational theses to collections of occasional verse, correspondence, notebooks and university drama. This anthology as a whole conveys a sense of the extent of Latin's role in the academy and the span of remits in which it was deployed. Far from simply offering a snapshot of discrete projects, the contributions collectively offer insights into the broader culture of the early modern university over an extended period. They engage with the administrative operations of institutions, pedagogical processes and academic approaches, but also high-level disputes and the universities' relationship with the worlds of politics, new science and intellectual developments elsewhere in Europe.

An Anthology of Neo-Latin Literature in British Universities

Gareth Williams

Bobby Xinyue

This book offers the first annotated translation into English of two works of the eminent Venetian humanist, Ermolao Barbaro (1454–93). The Neo-Latin texts are also accompanied by a detailed introduction. The first work, On Celibacy, seeks to justify the contemplative life far from the career path expected of the patrician class, while in contrast the second, On the Office of Ambassador, outlines the conduct expected of the dedicated ambassador of Venice. Barbaro's two works are presented as embodying key contrasts within the much wider 15th-century debate about the claims of the reflective as opposed to the active life. On Celibacy argues for an alternative ideal to Barbaro's grandfather's seminal treatise celebrating marriage, promoting the celibate who proudly renounces civic life in the pursuit of self-discovery and wisdom. Presenting a more secular argument, On the Office of Ambassador revolutionises the role of the ambassador in Venetian politics. On a personal level for their author, these two works also captured the dichotomy in Barbaro's life between his humanist calling of scholarship and his public service to the Republic.

Ermolao Barbaro's On Celibacy and On the Duty of Ambassador

In the late Renaissance and Early Modern period, man’s relationship to nature changed dramatically. An important part of this change occurred in the way that beauty was perceived in the natural world and in the particular features which became privileged objects of aesthetic gratification. This study explores the shift in aesthetic attitude towards the mountain that took place between 1450 and 1750. Over the course of these 300 years the mountain transformed from a fearful and ugly place to one of beauty and splendor. Accepted scholarly opinion claims that this change took place in the vernacular literature of the early and mid-18th century. Based on previously unknown and unstudied material, this volume now contends that it took place earlier in the Latin literature of the late Renaissance and Early Modern period. The aesthetic attitude shift towards the mountain had its catalysts in two broad spheres: the development of an idea of ‘landscape’ in the geographical and artistic traditions of the 16th century on the one hand, and the increasing amount of scientific and theological investigation dedicated to the mountain on the other, reaching a pinnacle in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. The new Latin evidence for the change in aesthetic attitude towards the mountain unearthed in the course of this study brings material to light which is relevant for the current philosophical debate in environmental aesthetics. The book’s concluding chapter shows how understanding the processes that produced the late Renaissance and Early Modern shift in aesthetic attitude towards the mountain can reveal important information about the modern aesthetic appreciation of nature. Alongside a standard bibliography of primary literature, this volume also offers an extended annotated bibliography of further Latin texts on the mountains from the Renaissance and Early Modern period. This critical bibliography is the first of its kind and constitutes an essential tool for further study in the field.

William M. Barton

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