Latin, Or the Empire of the Sign

By Francoise Waquet and Françoise Waquet

Book Overview

A highly original and accessible history of Latin between the sixteenth and twentieth centuries that explores how Latin came to dominate the civic and sacred worlds of Europe and, arguably, the entire western world.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1859844022
• ISBN13: 9781859844021
• Release Date: December 2002
• Publisher: Verso
• Length: 354 Pages
• Weight: 1.29 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.2" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Sic transit gloria

I found the first chapter of this book rather tedious. It is about the teaching of Latin in schools and universities, and shows, by way of innumerable examples (a trait of the book as a whole - the author's range of research is truly amazing), the dominance that Latin had in the secondary school syllabus even for a decade or so after the end of the Second World War. In the 16th century, where this book begins, teaching was often done in Latin; at Oxford a statute of 1636 even required students to converse with each other in Latin, and in Prussian schools Latin was still spoken between pupils and between them and their teachers in the middle of the 19th century. Oxford and Cambridge required Latin as a condition for entry until the 1960s and 1970s, and therefore many schools had perforce to continue teaching it. (In a later entertaining section we learn how the young would compensate for the tedium of their instruction by inventing skits - sometimes scabrous ones - on the language.) But from the 18th century onwards teaching in the vernacular made more and more headway; and this, too, is illustrated with many examples. What is completely missing in this chapter is an account of the arguments in defence and (except for one or to examples) in opposition to compulsory Latin, or indeed of the sociological forces that were at play on both sides. For that kind of analysis we have to wait till Part III, the last two-fifths of the book. Before we get there, we are given a devastating picture of how, right back to at least the 17th century, only a very small proportion of pupils benefitted from - let alone enjoyed - their studies in Latin: the great majority, after 10 or more years of study, could scarcely understand a Latin text. It is odd that the Latin of the Catholic Church should be the subject of only the second chapter; for surely the commanding position of Latin has its origin in the Church. This chapter is much better, for it gives explanations together with the exposition. The Catholic Church was suspicious of lay people being able to read the scriptures for themselves and interpreting it in a `heretical' sense; and it did its best to oppose translations into the vernacular; and though it accepted sermons in the vernacular and eventually even sanctioned translations of the scriptures, it insisted until Vatican II in 1963 that the liturgy must be in a language that even some of the lower clergy often mouthed without really understanding it. (Waquet does not mention the origin of the words `hocus pocus' - which is what laymen heard when the words `hoc est corpus meum' were gabbled by the clergy during the `magical' transformation of the wafer into the body of Christ.) The Catholic Church believed that a language which was no longer changing was appropriate for liturgies that expressed unchanging truths and for uniting Catholics all over the world. The fact that Latin was read all over the world also made it for a long time the la

The European Sign

As the XVIII century advanced, the Latin language tended increasingly to decline in favour of the French, which reigned for the whole XIX century, before itself meeting competition from English. In a sense it was the end of an era, a long late summer appropriately marked by the French revolution, the Napoleonic wars and the ensuing spreading of nationalisms. The "death" of Latin was more a kind of slow fading away: while it was increasingly superseded by French in the Republic of Letters and in the international diplomacy, it knew his last melancholy bright days with the philological studies in the German universities and the creation of Gymnasium: dissected, revered and enshrined it was no more than the cadaver of that great sovereign who ruled the European continent for so many centuries. Universal language par excellence, Latin never ceased to be used in Europe even after the fall of the Roman Empire and the spreading of the new national languages. But in the meanwhile its use had changed substantially: from everyday language, increasingly to universal language in the double role of "sacred" language (for liturgy and Scriptures) and language of power and diplomacy. Then with Renaissance it finds a new role as language of culture: it is a second spring, because it becomes the supranational official language of the humanism first, and then of the so called Republic of Letters. Decline is only slowed none the less. Parallel to these roles, others are less obvious: aristocratic language, with its power of exclusion, the power to "say and conceal" and its obvious immediate uselessness that can become a mark of distinction for a proto-leisure class (Veblen). "Latin or the Empire of a Sign. From the XVI to the XX century" is an outstanding essay on the evolution and role of this language in the European culture. Well written, in a lively and colloquial style, sprinkled with examples, citations and anecdotes, it successfully captures the attention of the reader. Certainly, the theme is very specific and targeted to an readership interested in the development of European culture and in Greco-Latin philology, none the less the writer has been able to arrange a "reader-friendly" text: all Latin citations are translated, every theme is carefully expressed in a way that also uninitiated can fully understand. I found this book almost by chance: a few years ago had read a very flattering review of it, but as often happens, I forgot and reading did not follow. This is a study that springs from a former essay written by Francoise Waquet with Hans Bots: "La République des Lettres" (unfortunately still not translated into English), of which Latin was the common jargon. So why Latin could be such an alluring theme? Well, because it was a common primeval language, a common mark in the identity of a culture before the Babel-like fragmentation of the Romantic period. By looking at the story of the decadence of Latin, the development of the Continental

Worth reading even for a non- Classics/Latin specialist

This is a thought provoking book about the teaching of Latin in traditional, mostly European, educational systems from the 16th through 20th centuries. The author cites numerous examples of the way in which the prestige of knowing or being forced to learn Latin shaped the educational process as well the sometimes unwilling students who needed to acquire a fair amount of Latin in order to be full participants in this "empire." Highly interesting as a social/linguistic history in its own right,much of what Waquet describes could also be applied to any number of other class/educational factors that seemingly separate those who are inside or outside the system. No Latin ("dead language") basher, the author actually provides examples for the continued utilty of the study of Latin, albeit in a more specialized mode than those who wish to restore the classics to a place of prominince might wish. Highly readable for a scholarly book of this sort.