Suggested reading in preparation of the Vacation School
(revised 24 March 2016)
The following titles are just a selection of articles and book that engage with, or provide insights into, the field of
Neo-Latin Studies and cognate areas of research. There is no attempt here to provide an exhaustive list. You are
encouraged to undertake some selected reading according to your own interests and the availability of the books
in your local research library.
Handbooks and Companions
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Jozef Ijsewijn, Companion to Neo-Latin Studies, 2nd entirely rewritten edition, Part I: History and Diffusion of
Neo-Latin Literature; Part II (with Dirk Sacré): Literary, Linguistic, Philological and Editorial Questions,
Supplementa Humanistica Lovaniensia 5 & 14 (Leuven: Leuven University Press and Peeters Press, 1990-1998).
Martin Korenjak, Geschichte der neulateinischen Literatur. Vom Humanismus bis zur Gegenwart (München: Beck
2016).
Brill’s Encyclopaedia of the Neo-Latin World, edited by Philip Ford, Jan Bloemendal and Charles Fantazzi,
Renaissance Society of America Texts and Studies Series, 2 vols (Leiden: Brill, 2014). Also available in an on-line
edition.
The Oxford Handbook of Neo-Latin, ed. by Sarah Knight and Stefan Tilg, Oxford Handbooks (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2015). Also available as e-book.
A Companion to the Classical tradition, ed. by Craig W. Kallendorf with the assistance of Ward Briggs, Julia
Gaisser, and Charles Martindale, Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World (Malden: Blackwell, 2007), passim.
Studies of the history and cultural significance of the Latin language
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Alejandro Coroleu, Carlo Caruso & Andrew Laird (eds), The Role of Latin in the Early Modern World: Linguistic
identity and nationalism 1350-1800. Contributions from the conference held at the Universitat Autònoma de
Barcelona, Casa Convalescència, 5-6 May 2010 [= Renæssanceforum. Tidsskrift for renæssanceforskning 8 (2012)]
http://www.renaessanceforum.dk/rf_8_2012.htm (entire issue downloadable as pdf).
Ángela Helmer, ‘La herencia latina en documentos del Perú Colonial’, Revista Internacional de Lingüística
Iberoamericana 10.2 (20) (2012), 105–118. Available via JSTOR.
Marc Laureys, ‘A Little Known Plea in Defence of Latin: Gabriel Barrius’s Pro lingua Latina’, in Latin and the
Vernaculars in Early Modern Europe, ed. by T. A. Hass and J. Ramminger [= Renæssanceforum. Tidsskrift for
renæssanceforskning 6 (2010)], pp. 23–41. http://www.renaessanceforum.dk/rf_6_2010.htm
Jürgen Leonhardt, Latin: Story of a World Language, translated by Kenneth Kronenburg (London, and
Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2013). First published as Latein: Geschichte einer
Weltsprache (2009).
Ann Moss, Renaissance Truth and the Latin Language Turn (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003). Available as
an e-book (2011) via Oxford Scholarship Online.
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Nicholas Ostler, Ad Infinitum. A Biography of Latin and the World it Created (London: HarperPress, 2007, repr.
2009).
Silvia Rizzo, Ricerche sul latino umanistico (Rome: Edizioni di storia e letteratura, 2002).
Jane Stevenson, Women Latin Poets: Language, Gender and Authority from Antiquity to the Eighteenth Century
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005).
Peter Stotz, Handbuch zur lateinischen Sprache des Mittelalters, Handbuch der Altertumswissenschaft 2 Abt.,
Teil 5, 1. Bd. (München: Beck, 2002).
Wilfried Stroh, Latein ist tot, es lebe Latein! Kleine Geschichte einer großen Sprache (Berlin: List 2007, several
reprints) – French translation: Le Latin est mort, vive le latin! Petite histoire d'une grande langue, trans. by Sylvain
Bluntz (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 2008).
Françoise Waquet, Latin, or the Empire of a Sign from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries, translated by
John Howe (London and New York: Verso, 2001). First published as Le Latin, ou l’empire d’un signe (1998).
Methodological reflections on the field (see also handbooks/companions above)
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Ingrid A. R. De Smet, ‘Not for Classicists? The State of Neo-Latin Studies’ [review article], Journal of Roman
Studies 89 (1999), 205-209
Hans Helander, ‘Neo-Latin Studies: Significance and Prospects’, Symbolae Osloenses 76 (2001), 5–102. Available
as a pdf via Taylor & Francis Online (institutional or private subscription required).
Toon Van Hal, ‘Towards Meta-Neo-Latin Studies? Impetus to Debate on the Field of Neo-Latin Studies and its
Methodology’, Humanistica Lovaniensia 56 (2007), 349–365. Available online via JSTOR.
Ingrid De Smet Lic PG dip KU Leuven PhD Camb DLitt Warwick FBA
Professor of French and Neo-Latin Studies (School of Modern Languages & Cultures)
Director, Centre for the Study of the Renaisance