COPYRIGHT, 1925 BY ALLYN AND BACON Norwood Press Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. PREFACE THIS book is designed to introduce the reader to Mediaeval Latin, for more than a thousand years the universal language of church, state, school, society, and belles-lettres. From the overwhelming mass of material that has lain hidden in musty tomes and quaint manuscripts the editor has selected examples in the various fields of mediaeval literature, except the didactic and homiletic works of the church fathers. This gives a conspectus of the whole subject by typical samples from different periods. The selections represent history, anecdote, argument, the epistle, the drama, the essay, the dialogue, the novel, and epic, lyric, pastoral, didactic, and satiric verse. Teachers or students wishing to specialize in any of these forms will find the selections topically outlined at the end of the Table of Contents. For the student of history, comparative literature, or civilization in general, these pages have a profound significance. To the student of the Latin language and literature, they show that Latin from Ennius to Erasmus, during a period of nearly a millennium and three quarters, is more homogeneous than is English from Chaucer to Tennyson, a matter of only five hundred years. The student of the Romance and other modern languages can here see important processes actually going on in the development of these languages. The selections are useful for schools, for colleges, or for the general reader, and have been chosen with a view to intrinsic interest. Many of the passages are so simple in vocabulary, 689576 sentence construction, and word-order, that they are admirably adapted for sight reading in secondary schools, even in the second year, as well as in colleges. Teachers preferring to begin at once with a group of such simple, narrative selections can turn to pages 417-538, where the annotation has been made fuller for the purpose of facilitating reading at sight or by relatively immature students. As a rule the notes translate all words not found in Lewis's Elementary Latin Dictionary except such as are obvious after a little thought or intelligent conjecture. The form and spelling, but not the punctuation of the various texts, have been followed; but J is not used and U and V are differentiated. The many illustrations are particularly interesting. Some of them have been taken from standard and familiar non-copyright works, under circumstances which seem to call for no special acknowledgments. The editor wishes to acknowledge in particular the courtesy of the Syndics of the Cambridge University Press in permitting the use of the portrait of Lipsius taken from Sandys's History of Classical Scholarship, that of Messrs. Foster and Kent and their publishers, Charles Scribner's Sons, in granting the privilege of reproducing from their History of the Hebrew Commonwealth the picture of Mt. Sinai and the monastery, and that of Dodd, Mead and Company in allowing the reproduction of the picture of Petrarch from The New International Encyclopædia. Finally the editor desires to express his grateful appreciation of the help afforded him by various librarians and friends, and especially the innumerable valuable suggestions given by Professor Rolfe, the supervising editor of this series of Latin textbooks. SEPTEMBER, 1925. KARL POMEROY HARRINGTON AETHERIA SELECTIONS Gregory explains why he undertakes to write history. Gregory confesses his faith and deplores his ignorance Attila and the Huns, invading Gaul, are checked at Orleans, and defeated near Châlons-sur-Marne by Aëtius Clovis, king of the Franks, defeats the Alamanni and accepts |