Middle Latin literature

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Middle Latin literature is the common name for the entirety of the literature in Latin that originated in the Middle Ages. The subject responsible for their philological research is called "Latin Philology of the Middle Ages". The first works included in Middle Latin literature were written in the 6th century. The era of Medieval Latinity was followed by that of Renaissance humanism , which was formed in Italy in the first half of the 14th century and subsequently spread in other parts of Europe with varying speeds and intensity. Renaissance humanism literature is part of neo-Latin literature . Works by humanists are therefore not counted as Middle Latin literature, even if they were written in the first half of the 14th century. On the other hand, Middle Latin works were still being created in the 15th century, especially religious poetry. In the late Middle Ages , therefore, Middle Latin and Neo-Latin literature coexisted for a long time.

In the Middle Ages, all educated people in Europe communicated in Latin, with the exception of the East, which was part of the Byzantine cultural area or was shaped by it, and the parts of the Iberian Peninsula under Muslim rule. Latin was the language of instruction, literature and science, law, administration and diplomacy. In particular, it was also the language of the Catholic Church which did not tolerate the use of other languages ​​in worship except for sermons.

term

Linguistic demarcation

A key feature of the Latin literature of the Middle Ages is the fact that, unlike ancient Latin, medieval Latin was not a vernacular. Nowhere was it learned more than the mother tongue, but every person who knew Latin had only learned it in school. As a result, there was no longer a linguistic community in the traditional sense; instead, Latin was exclusively the language of an educated class, whose members were not linked by their descent, but only by their affiliation to the Latin cultural tradition. Although Latin was not only written by the educated, it was also spoken and was therefore not a "dead" language, the corrective that is formed in a "living" vernacular language by the community of living native speakers was missing.

Therefore the terms "Middle Latin language" and "Middle Latin literature" are somewhat problematic; it is not a question of a new form of language or language level that could be differentiated from ancient Latin on the basis of its morphology or syntax . As a form of language, Middle Latin differs in no way from ancient Late Latin, which was always present in the Middle Ages as the language of the ancient church fathers and the Latin translations of the Bible and which profoundly shaped the use of language. Church late Latin, which seamlessly merged into Middle Latin, can be distinguished from the language of late ancient non-Christians by a multitude of specifically Christian terms, but hardly by grammatical peculiarities, of which it had very few.

A linguistic differentiation from the neo-Latin literature of the humanists results from the fact that the humanists strictly limited their vocabulary to words that they found in the ancient authors who were considered exemplary. They eliminated all new formations and changes in meaning ( neologisms ) of the Middle Ages and all non-antique modes of expression, especially those of scholasticism , which they considered barbaric. For example, the word papa (Pope) , which was used in the Middle Ages, was consistently replaced by the ancient title Pontifex maximus .

Time limit

From a philological point of view, the question of the temporal delimitation from antiquity and the Renaissance overlaps with the question discussed by historians about the end of antiquity and the end of the Middle Ages . A central point of view for literary studies is the incision that marks a change in the consciousness of the authors living at the time. In this sense, the Middle Latin Franz Brunhölzl thinks that the beginning of Middle Latin literature should be placed "where authors representative or characteristic of their time ... indicate that they regard antiquity and the patristic era as a bygone era see yourself as belonging to a new era ". Brunhölzl sets this turning point between Boëthius and Cassiodorus . Boëthius († 524/526), ​​who regarded himself as a Roman in the ancient sense, was still entirely of late antiquity in his mentality, Cassiodorus († after 580) had stepped into a new age and could be considered the first medieval writer. The end of medieval Latinity is to be seen there "where the writers consciously distance themselves from the medieval world of education and feel that they are the bearers of a new mindset". This process, which lasted more than a century and a half, was only completed at the end of the 15th century. In the late Middle Ages, the distinction between Middle Latin and humanistic Neo-Latin, which existed side by side in the 14th and 15th centuries, was not determined by the author's lifetime, but rather the question of whether his attitude should already be counted as part of humanism.

Spatial demarcation

Spatially, the area in which Medieval Latin literature originated is identical to the area of ​​the Latin-speaking Church, which is subordinate to the authority of the papacy, although in the early Middle Ages part of this area was occupied by the empires of the then Arian peoples, in which Latin was also educational and Administrative language was. At the beginning of the epoch of Middle Latin literature, the extent of this area corresponded roughly to that of the fallen Western Roman Empire; Ireland was added, and Christianization began in the 5th century. In the course of the High Middle Ages, the newly Christianized areas of Central, Eastern and Northern Europe were gradually included, in which Middle Latin found its way with the introduction of church organization and Latin worship. In Germany this took place largely in the Carolingian period , in Bohemia from the middle of the 9th century, in Moravia and Poland in the 10th century, in Hungary in the 11th century. The incorporation of Scandinavia was not completed until the end of the 11th century. North Africa was completely eliminated as a result of the Islamic conquest in the course of the 7th century; on the Iberian Peninsula, however, there was still a Latin literature cultivated by the Christians in areas under Muslim rule. In the Middle East, the crusader states that existed there in the 12th and 13th centuries also belonged to the Latin world.

Material demarcation

In the Middle Ages, no clear distinction was made between relevant literature and "beautiful" literature ( fiction ); the transitions between literary texts and practical texts were fluid. Often, writings that are purely specialist literature in terms of their content were created using literary art. In all areas of writing there were works whose authors made a more or less clearly recognizable literary claim; Numerous authors were on the one hand poets or wrote entertainment literature and on the other hand also worked as specialist writers. Therefore, for the Middle Latin literature, the delimitation of the material with which literary studies have to deal is not easy in some cases. The criterion in the individual case is whether or not an effort by the author in question to create a literary form is at least partially recognizable.

Influences

Ancient heritage

Despite various changes and cuts, the Latin literature of the Middle Ages continued the traditions of late ancient Latin literature. Some ancient works continued to be read, including in school lessons, and were considered exemplary, especially Virgil's works. This went so far that new texts were composed only of quotations from Virgil's Aeneid, a so-called cento . Writers practiced imitating ancient models, called imitatio in Latin . With the progressive spread of written form and literary production, another goal came to the fore, namely to surpass the ancient models, to compete directly with them ( called aemulatio in Latin ).

In the course of the Middle Ages, previously little-known texts from antiquity were found, copied and distributed again and again. The increasing knowledge of materials could also lead to a return to content and methodological options, even before the Renaissance propagated such recourse.

Vernacular influences

Particularly noticeable was the change from the ancient quantitative metric to accented poetry, in which it was no longer the alternation of long and short syllables but the accent-dependent rhythm that determined the construction of verses. This new form of poetry, which was still unknown in ancient literature, appeared alongside metric poetry, which continued to be cultivated according to the ancient model, without completely displacing it. In the creation of the accented poetry, vernacular influences played a role. The Germanic languages ​​in particular all had a pronounced word accent. The emergence of the final rhyme, which is almost completely absent from ancient poetry, is probably also due to vernacular influences. Assonance also certainly goes back to vernacular languages .

In addition to linguistic influences, there were also new topics from the vernacular. For example, the well-known " Canticle of the Sun " by Francis of Assisi was distributed in a Latin translation shortly after it was written in Italian. Latin literature not only influenced the vernacular literatures, but it also affected the Latin literature of its time. Towards the end of the Middle Ages, more and more works were distributed both in Latin and in vernacular versions.

Subjects and genres

Spiritual works

The church was an essential carrier of literary continuity between antiquity and the Middle Ages. It produced an extensive literature of various kinds: In addition to theological works, liturgical, canonical and many other types of scriptures were created. The biographical tradition, which in addition to numerous lives of saints also produced bishops and abbot biographies, proved to be particularly fruitful. A typical medieval phenomenon is vision literature, which culminates in Dante's Divina commedia .

The production of theological works of various kinds, such as the commentary on biblical writings and the theological monograph, but also the formulation of confessions, was taken over from antiquity. In addition, sacred poems emerged early on, which gave rise to new genres such as the sequence , the sacred hymn such as the hoquetus , the antiphon and others. The production of hymns reached its peak.

In the High Middle Ages, was canon law , the extensive legal literature creations as the Corpus Juris Canonici brought forth with associated comments.

New genres such as sentences , sentence comments, sums (known as the " sum of theology " and the " sum against the heathens " of Thomas Aquinas ), altercation literature (disputes, for example between Jews and Christians) and treatises ( tractatus ). The dissertatio was also created later as a forerunner of the dissertation that is still maintained today.

Secular literature

Spiritual literature preceded and influenced secular literature somewhat in its development. In the Carolingian period and increasingly from the High Middle Ages, numerous secular poems emerged, such as friendship poetry, epitaphs, love songs, drinking songs or mocking poems, riddles and fables. Often times the same authors created both sacred and secular poetry. A typical phenomenon of the time was the underlay of an existing melody with a new text, mostly a spiritual song was underlaid with a secular text or vice versa. This procedure is called counterfactoring .

As in the Church, secular corpora of law also emerged. Above all, the rediscovery of Roman law had a fruitful effect and led to the training of legal studies in the legal faculties. There were glosses, commentaries and legal treatises.

The bulk of the specialist literature includes grammars and dictionaries as well as textbooks on rhetoric and metrics, dialectics, geometry, arithmetic, astronomy and computistics (calculation of time), philosophy and the natural sciences. In addition to scientific prose, the genre of didactic poems continued to exist.

The epic was also cultivated, especially the historical epic. As further genres of historiography, annals, chronicles and secular biographies (especially rulers' biographies) appeared early on.

Drama and spiritual play have appeared since the 10th century ( Hrotswith von Gandersheim ).

As in ancient literature, the novel is rare in medieval Latin literature. The first fictional novel of the Middle Ages is Ruodlieb , a Latin verse epic of the 11th century.

literature

Introductions and manuals
  • Franz Brunhölzl : History of the Latin Literature of the Middle Ages . Fink, Munich 1975ff. (2 volumes published so far)
    • Volume 1: From Cassiodorus to the end of the Carolingian renewal . 1975, ISBN 3-7705-1113-1
    • Volume 2: The Intermediate Period from the End of the Carolingian Age to the Middle of the Eleventh Century . 1992, ISBN 3-7705-2614-7
  • Franz Brunhölzl: The Latin literature . In: Willi Erzgräber (Ed.): European Late Middle Ages (= New Handbook of Literary Studies Volume 8), Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft Athenaion, Wiesbaden 1978, ISBN 3-7997-0139-7 , pp. 519-563 (overview of the Latin literature of the late Middle Ages )
  • Guglielmo Cavallo , Claudio Leonardi , Enrico Menestò (eds.): Lo spazio letterario del Medioevo. 1: Il medioevo latino . 5 volumes (Vol. 1 in two parts), Salerno Editrice, Roma 1992–1998
  • Udo Kindermann : Introduction to Latin Literature of Medieval Europe , Brepols, Turnhout 1998, ISBN 2-503-50701-8
  • Max Manitius : History of Latin Literature in the Middle Ages . 3 volumes, Beck, Munich 1911–1931, reprint 1973–1976 (out of date, but still indispensable; the third volume only lasts until the end of the 12th century)
  • Frank AC Mantello and Arthur George Rigg: Medieval Latin. An Introduction and Bibliographical Guide . Catholic University of America Press, Washington (DC) 1996, ISBN 0-8132-0842-4
  • Peter Stotz : Handbook on the Latin language of the Middle Ages . 5 volumes, Beck, Munich 1996-2004
  • Paul Gerhard Schmidt : The interest in Middle Latin literature . Universitätsverlag, Freiburg (Switzerland) 1995, ISBN 3-7278-1028-9 ( limited preview )
Editions
List of writers and works
  • Franz Blatt u. a .: Index scriptorum novus mediae Latinitatis from anno DCCC usque ad annum MCC . Munksgaard, Copenhagen 1973. Supplementary volume: Bruno Bon: Index scriptorum novus mediae Latinitatis. Supplementum (1973-2005) . Droz, Geneva 2005, ISBN 92-990020-4-5 (list of works and text editions that are evaluated in the Novum Glossarium Mediae Latinitatis , a Middle Latin dictionary)
  • Wolfgang Buchwald u. a. (Ed.): Tusculum Lexicon of Greek and Latin Authors of Antiquity and the Middle Ages . 3rd edition, Artemis, Munich 1982, ISBN 3-7608-1641-X (very scarce, contains partly outdated information)
  • BISLAM. Bibliotheca Scriptorum Latinorum Medii Recentiorisque Aevi. Repertory of Medieval and Renaissance Latin Authors . Edizioni del Galluzzo, Florence 2003ff.
    • Vol. 1: Gli Autori in "Medioevo Latino". Authors in "Medioevo Latino" , ed. Roberto Gamberini, 2003
  • CALMA Compendium Auctorum Latinorum Medii Aevi (500-1500). Sismel, Florence 2003ff.
    • Vol. 1: Abelardus Petrus - Bartholomaeus de Forolivio , 2003
  • Clavis Scriptorum Graecorum et Latinorum. Repertoire des auteurs grecs et latins. Repertoire of Greek and Latin authors , ed. Rodrigue LaRue, 10 volumes, 2nd edition, Trois-Rivières 1996
Repertories for Poetry
  • Dieter Schaller and Ewald Könsgen : Initia carminum Latinorum saeculo undecimo antiquiorum. Bibliographical repertory for Latin poetry from antiquity and the early Middle Ages. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1977, ISBN 3-525-25610-8 , and Supplementary Volume 2005, ISBN 3-525-25614-0 (list of ancient and medieval Latin poems written before the year 1000, sorted alphabetically according to the initial words [Initia] )
  • Hans Walther : Initia carminum ac versuum medii aevi posterioris Latinorum. Alphabetical index of the beginnings of Middle Latin poetry. 2nd edition, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1969 (list of Latin poems written in the period 1000–1500, sorted alphabetically according to the initial words [Initien])
Annual bibliographies
  • Medioevo latino. Bollettino bibliografico della cultura europea da Boezio a Erasmo (secoli VI – XV) , ed. Società Internazionale per lo Studio del Medioevo Latino, Spoleto (later Florence) 1980ff.
  • Bibliography annuelle du moyen-âge tardif. Auteurs et textes latins , ed. Jean-Pierre Rothschild, Brepols, Turnhout 1991ff.
Magazines

Web links

Overviews and introductions
Link collections

Remarks

  1. ↑ Brunhölzl (1975) p. 3, 25-27.