Monday 11 March 2013

The paradox of Latin in the Middle Ages

Vincenzo Foppa, Young Cicero Reading


The Latin of the medieval Church was thus born with a double character. It bound the universal Church intimately together ... but simultaneously preserved writings potentially corrosive of Christian belief. ... The more assiduously a young cleric read Cicero to polish his language for Christian ministry, the more exposed he was to pre-Christian thought. 

Alexander Murray, review in the TLS of Ronald Witt The Two Latin Cultures and the Foundation of Renaissance Humanism in Italy (Cambridge, 2013)