Using Medieval Latin: A Toolbox of Resources
by Carol D. Lanham

[updated 17 June 1999]

Literary History and Criticism / Nachleben

This section emphasizes late antiquity and the early Middle Ages—through the Carolingian renaissance, which I consider the crucial period to understand, for both the survival of classical texts and the development of new literary genres.

It’s unfortunate that there is no encyclopedic survey of medieval Latin literature in English, comparable to Manitius; but see Medieval Latin: An Introduction and Bibliographical Guide, Part 3, which devotes some 225 pages to “Varieties of Medieval Latin Literature,” divided into 26 categories.

It can be difficult to trace the Nachleben of classical Latin authors: The Oxford Classical Dictionary is almost useless for this purpose, the Cambridge History of Classical Literature not much better. The last item in this section, Texts and Transmission, deals with the concrete underpinnings of our Latin intellectual heritage—a subject I find both fascinating and moving. Survival in manuscripts can reveal a lot about when and where a classical author was known during the Middle Ages, and that goes for the work of medieval vernacular authors as well.

Erich Auerbach. Literary Language and Its Public in Late Latin Antiquity and in the Middle Ages. Trans. Ralph Manheim. London 1965.

Rich and sensitive analysis, deeply rewarding to read. See especially the first two chapters, “Sermo humilis” and “Latin Prose in the Early Middle Ages.”

Franz Brunhölzl. Geschichte der lateinische Literatur des Mittelalters. Vol. 1: Von Cassiodor bis zum Ausklang der karolingischen Erneuerung. Munich 1975. Vol. 2: Die Zwischenzeit vom Ausgang des karolingischen Zeitalters bis zur Mitte des elften Jahrhunderts. 1992. Translated into French by Henri Rochais as Histoire de la littérature latine du moyen âge, with additional bibliography, in 3 vols. Turnhout 1990–96.

A large-scale work, planned to reach to the fifteenth century. More discursive and readable than Manitius, though offering far less detailed treatment of the manuscript sources.

Cambridge History of Classical Literature, vol. 2: Latin Literature. Ed. E. J. Kenney and W. V. Clausen. Cambridge 1982.

Each chapter (on an author or genre) written by a specialist. The final seven chapters, all by Robert Browning, cover “the later principate,” through the mid-fifth century. An Appendix of Authors and Works (pp. 799–935) contains bibliography, divided into texts and commentaries, translations, and studies.

Ernst Curtius. European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages. Trans. Willard R. Trask. New York 1953.

Emphasizes the importance of tradition (rather than originality) in literary creation. A classic, available in paperback.

Charles Homer Haskins. The Renaissance of the Twelfth Century. Cambridge, Mass. 1927.

“... we shall confine ourselves to the Latin side of this Renaissance” (p. vi). Another classic, also available in paperback.

The fiftieth anniversary of its publication was celebrated with a star-studded conference reexamining the many fields Haskins surveyed; the 26 papers were published as Renaissance and Renewal in the Twelfth Century, ed. Robert L. Benson and Giles Constable (Cambridge, Mass. 1982; paperback rpt. 1991).

Michael W. Herren, ed. Insular Latin Studies: Latin Texts and Manuscripts of the British Isles, 550–1066. Toronto 1981.

Two survey articles are of special interest: Herren’s “Hiberno-Latin Philology: The State of the Question,” and “The Present State of Anglo-Latin Studies,” by Michael Lapidge. Both Herren and Lapidge have continued to make significant contributions to Insular Latin studies.

M. L. W. Laistner. Thought and Letters in Western Europe, A.D. 500 to 900. 2nd ed. Ithaca 1957.

A well-balanced, reliable, and remarkably inclusive survey. Much easier to digest than Riché. Available in paperback.

Max Manitius. Geschichte der lateinischen Literatur des Mittelalters. Handbuch der Altertumswissenschaft IX.2.1–3. 3 vols. Munich 1911–31.

Indispensable and likely to remain so; constantly cited, and always worth consulting for its compelling mastery of detail (Manitius was a manuscript scholar and cataloguer, and often quotes at length from manuscripts). Starts where Schanz-Hosius, its predecessor in this series for the earlier periods, leaves off; vol. 1 goes to the mid-tenth century, vol. 3 through the twelfth. Nachträge (additions, chiefly bibliographical) at the end of vols. 2 and 3.

F. J. E. Raby. A History of Christian-Latin Poetry from the Beginnings to the Close of the Middle Ages. 2nd ed. Oxford 1953. A History of Secular Latin Poetry in the Middle Ages. 2nd ed. 2 vols. Oxford 1957.

Both offer a leisurely, rather old-fashioned treatment, generous with biographical detail and quotations of the poetry.

Pierre Riché. Education and Culture in the Barbarian West, Sixth through Eighth Centuries. Trans. (from the 3rd French ed.) John J. Contreni. Columbia, S.C. 1976.

Minutely detailed narrative, based on an awesome array of primary-source materials. The threefold organization of its narrative—chronological, geographical, and lay/religious—leads to backtracking, and makes “the big picture” hard to grasp. Generous bibliography; excellent index with full cross-references; 16 maps.

Texts and Transmission: A Survey of the Latin Classics. Ed. L. D. Reynolds. Oxford 1983; corrected reprint 1986.

Arranged alphabetically by author, from Agrimensores through Vitruvius. Analyzing manuscript traditions, 14 expert contributors present the recoverable facts and reasonable inferences about what works were available when and where. Reynolds’s 30-page introduction summarizes, both chronologically and by country, the story of how our classical Latin texts survived.