Teachers and students of Medieval Latin often struggle to find the same range of learning materials available for Classical Latin. In this guide, Brigid Ehrmantraut highlights textbooks, anthologies, apps, and online resources that can help learners at every level engage more directly with medieval texts.
By Brigid Ehrmantraut
Teachers and students of Medieval Latin are not blessed with anywhere near the same number of instructional resources available for Classical Latin. The good news is that because Medieval Latin is not very different from Classical Latin, many existing Classical resources and textbooks can be repurposed. Indeed, I often have success teaching absolute beginners from Classical Latin textbooks, where grammatical rules and spelling conventions are consistent, and exercises and glossaries are plentiful. This is especially the case when I have a group of students (particularly postgraduates) with diverse interests and research needs. The Latin required to read Augustine or Aquinas is different from that needed to master medieval documentary sources, but a solid grounding in Classical Latin grammar is helpful for both. However, student feedback perennially shows that students studying the Middle Ages prefer to practice reading real medieval texts, rather than exclusively textbook exercises geared at reading the works of Caesar and Catullus. Depending on the needs and interests of the students, I have found that any textbook or grammar (Classical or otherwise) can usually be supplemented productively with extracts from real texts.
With this in mind, I’ve compiled a list of useful resources for both teachers and learners. This list is certainly not exhaustive, but it aims to include a representative selection of resources available today (primarily in English). There are no one-size fits-all pedagogical works for Medieval Latin, as different instructors and learners will have different needs. Many of the resources here are suitable for students who want to pursue self-study or practice outside of class, while others may require more context or classroom support, depending on the student’s level and previous experience (this is usually made clear from the description that follows).
A classic of Medieval Latin instruction, Collins’s Primer of Ecclesiastical Latin is meant for the absolute beginner and guides the learner through the basics of Latin grammar over 35 lessons, alongside vocabulary and extracts from or closely modelled on the Vulgate New Testament. It contains an understandably limited range of primary material, but one that is very useful for students going on to deal with ecclesiastical sources. Collins standardizes spelling and macrons to Classical Latin and has little to say about alternative medieval forms, which may cause minor confusion for students working with real texts (and especially for students using it for self-study).
Markus provides the text of the story of Barlaam and Josaphat from Jacobus de Voragine’s Golden Legend alongside a running glossary, detailed grammatical commentary, and an excellent appendix summarizing medieval forms and divergences from Classical Latin. The book assumes that the reader already has basic familiarity with Latin grammar and common vocabulary, and I have found that it makes an excellent intermediate textbook, or introduction to medieval Latin for students already comfortable with Classica Latin. It provides both medieval and standardized Classical orthography, easing the student into new spelling conventions. The story itself has been a teaching text for over 2000 years in various versions, languages and religious traditions across Eurasia and lends itself very well to classroom use! It is a good selection for teaching the Global Middle Ages and appeals to students with diverse research backgrounds and interests.
Beeson may still be the best anthology of Medieval Latin excerpts for students. Texts are presented in order of difficulty, starting with the simplest, allowing students with basic knowledge of Latin to progressively master trickier material on their own. It draws from a wide range of authors, periods, and locations, appealing to many different potential student interests. The introduction walks the student through key features of Medieval Latin grammar in brief, highlighting important departures from Classical Latin. Limited interpretive notes are provided on individual texts and there is a glossary at the end.
Sidwell organizes short excerpts of texts chronologically, starting with early Christian Latin and ending in the twelfth century. This works well for classes and students who want to work through stylistic and thematic developments over time, but the texts included represent mixed levels of difficulty and may provide more of a challenge for new or independent learners. Sidwell also assumes that students are already conversant in Classical Latin, although excerpts are accompanied by helpful notes on translation and morphology. There are good if brief discussions of medieval grammar and orthography at the end of the book, as well as a vocabulary.
Primary Texts
The Toronto Medieval Latin Texts series provides inexpensive and user-friendly commentaries for students working alone or in a class. Volumes vary in level of difficulty of text and extent of notes. Two especially enjoyable beginner or intermediate-friendly volumes in the series are:
In addition to these, I have had success teaching beginners with excerpts from the Navigatio Sancti Brendani, the Vatican Mythographers, and various saints’ Lives, many of which are written in simple Latin and have fun and easy to follow plotlines. The Carmina Burana are a good introduction to non-quantitative Latin verse. They are highly entertaining, perfect for reading aloud in class, and reasonably straightforward grammatically, while testing students’ ability to remember morphology, rather than trying to work out grammatical sense from the word order in prose.
Online Resources
Interactive Practice: For daily practice, the app Legentibus is fun and easy to use. It walks the user through several short stories accompanied by interactive translation, commentary, and audio. You do not need a paid subscription to access most of the introductory content, although there are far more texts available at the paid subscription level.
Grammar Review: Cattus and Vice Verba are useful for basic grammar review, but do not provide the absorbing storyline or range of texts found on Legentibus.
Vocabulary Practice: Anki, Quizlet, and Memrise are online flashcard options that some of my students swear by, although I find that writing physical flashcards by hand still works best for many learners!
Dictionaries
The number one challenge that many students encounter when trying to read Medieval Latin texts on their own is finding unfamiliar vocabulary. Classical Latin dictionaries often suffice, but not always! Here are some useful dictionaries for Medieval Latin, organized by region and/or specialty (again, not an exhaustive list).
Best all around Latin dictionary resource: Logeion
Logeion brings together a number of Latin (and Greek!) dictionaries, including several specific to Medieval Latin. The Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources (DMLBS) is probably the most accessible and useful for most students, although, as the name suggests, it is confined to British sources. (NB: verbs in DMLBS are listed under the present active infinitive rather than the first-person singular form.) Logeion also includes Du Cange’s Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, which may be less accessible for new learners (it is in Latin, after all), but it is often a good port of call for obscure words. Logeion is free to use without personal or institutional subscriptions and lacks advertisements.
Late Antique/Early Medieval Latin:
A. Souter, A Glossary of Later Latin to 600 AD (Oxford, 1949)
Latin in Ireland and Britain (in addition to DMLBS):
Brigid Ehrmantraut, an Associate Lecturer at the University of St Andrews, is a philologist and cultural and intellectual historian of medieval Britain and Ireland. Her new book is Celtic Magic: A Practitioner’s Guide.
Top Image: LATIN Grammar, with Latin-English vocabularies, a hymnbook and other matters, evidently the school-book of a grammar school boy in London – British Library MS Add. 37075, fol. 191
Teachers and students of Medieval Latin often struggle to find the same range of learning materials available for Classical Latin. In this guide, Brigid Ehrmantraut highlights textbooks, anthologies, apps, and online resources that can help learners at every level engage more directly with medieval texts.
By Brigid Ehrmantraut
Teachers and students of Medieval Latin are not blessed with anywhere near the same number of instructional resources available for Classical Latin. The good news is that because Medieval Latin is not very different from Classical Latin, many existing Classical resources and textbooks can be repurposed. Indeed, I often have success teaching absolute beginners from Classical Latin textbooks, where grammatical rules and spelling conventions are consistent, and exercises and glossaries are plentiful. This is especially the case when I have a group of students (particularly postgraduates) with diverse interests and research needs. The Latin required to read Augustine or Aquinas is different from that needed to master medieval documentary sources, but a solid grounding in Classical Latin grammar is helpful for both. However, student feedback perennially shows that students studying the Middle Ages prefer to practice reading real medieval texts, rather than exclusively textbook exercises geared at reading the works of Caesar and Catullus. Depending on the needs and interests of the students, I have found that any textbook or grammar (Classical or otherwise) can usually be supplemented productively with extracts from real texts.
With this in mind, I’ve compiled a list of useful resources for both teachers and learners. This list is certainly not exhaustive, but it aims to include a representative selection of resources available today (primarily in English). There are no one-size fits-all pedagogical works for Medieval Latin, as different instructors and learners will have different needs. Many of the resources here are suitable for students who want to pursue self-study or practice outside of class, while others may require more context or classroom support, depending on the student’s level and previous experience (this is usually made clear from the description that follows).
Textbooks
John F. Collins, A Primer of Ecclesiastical Latin (Washington, D.C., 1985)
A classic of Medieval Latin instruction, Collins’s Primer of Ecclesiastical Latin is meant for the absolute beginner and guides the learner through the basics of Latin grammar over 35 lessons, alongside vocabulary and extracts from or closely modelled on the Vulgate New Testament. It contains an understandably limited range of primary material, but one that is very useful for students going on to deal with ecclesiastical sources. Collins standardizes spelling and macrons to Classical Latin and has little to say about alternative medieval forms, which may cause minor confusion for students working with real texts (and especially for students using it for self-study).
Donka D. Markus, Reading Medieval Latin with the Legend of Barlaam and Josaphat (Ann Arbor, MI, 2018)
Markus provides the text of the story of Barlaam and Josaphat from Jacobus de Voragine’s Golden Legend alongside a running glossary, detailed grammatical commentary, and an excellent appendix summarizing medieval forms and divergences from Classical Latin. The book assumes that the reader already has basic familiarity with Latin grammar and common vocabulary, and I have found that it makes an excellent intermediate textbook, or introduction to medieval Latin for students already comfortable with Classica Latin. It provides both medieval and standardized Classical orthography, easing the student into new spelling conventions. The story itself has been a teaching text for over 2000 years in various versions, languages and religious traditions across Eurasia and lends itself very well to classroom use! It is a good selection for teaching the Global Middle Ages and appeals to students with diverse research backgrounds and interests.
Anthologies
Charles H. Beeson, A Primer of Medieval Latin (New York, 1925)
Beeson may still be the best anthology of Medieval Latin excerpts for students. Texts are presented in order of difficulty, starting with the simplest, allowing students with basic knowledge of Latin to progressively master trickier material on their own. It draws from a wide range of authors, periods, and locations, appealing to many different potential student interests. The introduction walks the student through key features of Medieval Latin grammar in brief, highlighting important departures from Classical Latin. Limited interpretive notes are provided on individual texts and there is a glossary at the end.
Keith C. Sidwell, Reading Medieval Latin (Cambridge, 1995)
Sidwell organizes short excerpts of texts chronologically, starting with early Christian Latin and ending in the twelfth century. This works well for classes and students who want to work through stylistic and thematic developments over time, but the texts included represent mixed levels of difficulty and may provide more of a challenge for new or independent learners. Sidwell also assumes that students are already conversant in Classical Latin, although excerpts are accompanied by helpful notes on translation and morphology. There are good if brief discussions of medieval grammar and orthography at the end of the book, as well as a vocabulary.
Primary Texts
The Toronto Medieval Latin Texts series provides inexpensive and user-friendly commentaries for students working alone or in a class. Volumes vary in level of difficulty of text and extent of notes. Two especially enjoyable beginner or intermediate-friendly volumes in the series are:
Historia Apollonii regis Tyri: A Fourteenth-Century Version of a Late Antique Romance, ed. William Robins (Toronto, 2019)
Fifteen Medieval Latin Parodies, ed. Martha Bayless (Toronto, 2018)
In addition to these, I have had success teaching beginners with excerpts from the Navigatio Sancti Brendani, the Vatican Mythographers, and various saints’ Lives, many of which are written in simple Latin and have fun and easy to follow plotlines. The Carmina Burana are a good introduction to non-quantitative Latin verse. They are highly entertaining, perfect for reading aloud in class, and reasonably straightforward grammatically, while testing students’ ability to remember morphology, rather than trying to work out grammatical sense from the word order in prose.
Online Resources
Interactive Practice: For daily practice, the app Legentibus is fun and easy to use. It walks the user through several short stories accompanied by interactive translation, commentary, and audio. You do not need a paid subscription to access most of the introductory content, although there are far more texts available at the paid subscription level.
Grammar Review: Cattus and Vice Verba are useful for basic grammar review, but do not provide the absorbing storyline or range of texts found on Legentibus.
Vocabulary Practice: Anki, Quizlet, and Memrise are online flashcard options that some of my students swear by, although I find that writing physical flashcards by hand still works best for many learners!
Dictionaries
The number one challenge that many students encounter when trying to read Medieval Latin texts on their own is finding unfamiliar vocabulary. Classical Latin dictionaries often suffice, but not always! Here are some useful dictionaries for Medieval Latin, organized by region and/or specialty (again, not an exhaustive list).
Best all around Latin dictionary resource: Logeion
Logeion brings together a number of Latin (and Greek!) dictionaries, including several specific to Medieval Latin. The Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources (DMLBS) is probably the most accessible and useful for most students, although, as the name suggests, it is confined to British sources. (NB: verbs in DMLBS are listed under the present active infinitive rather than the first-person singular form.) Logeion also includes Du Cange’s Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, which may be less accessible for new learners (it is in Latin, after all), but it is often a good port of call for obscure words. Logeion is free to use without personal or institutional subscriptions and lacks advertisements.
Late Antique/Early Medieval Latin:
A. Souter, A Glossary of Later Latin to 600 AD (Oxford, 1949)
Latin in Ireland and Britain (in addition to DMLBS):
R. E. Latham, Revised Medieval Latin Word-List from British and Irish Sources (London, 1965) (especially good for documents)
A. Harvey, S. Power, et al., Dictionary of Medieval Latin from Celtic Sources (ongoing)
Latin in German-speaking areas:
Mittellateinisches Woerterbuch (various editors, ongoing) (translations in German)
Ecclesiastical Vocabulary:
A. Blaise, Dictionnaire latin-français des auteurs du moyen-âge. Lexicon latinitatis medii aevi, praesertim ad res ecclesiasticas investigandas pertinens (Turnhout, 1975) (translations in French)
Legal Vocabulary:
J. F. Niemeyer and C. Van de Klieft, Mediae latinitatis lexicon minus (Leiden, 1976) (translations in English, German, and French)
Musical Vocabulary:
Michael Bernhard, Lexicon musicum Latinum medii aevi (Munich, 1995–2016) (translations in German)
Place Names:
H. Plechl and C. Plechl, Orbis Latinus: lexicon lateinischer geographischer Namen des Mittelalters und der Neuzeit, 3 vols. (Brunswick, 1972)
Brigid Ehrmantraut, an Associate Lecturer at the University of St Andrews, is a philologist and cultural and intellectual historian of medieval Britain and Ireland. Her new book is Celtic Magic: A Practitioner’s Guide.
Top Image: LATIN Grammar, with Latin-English vocabularies, a hymnbook and other matters, evidently the school-book of a grammar school boy in London – British Library MS Add. 37075, fol. 191
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