• Grammars and Rhetorics

    Author(s):
    Ian Cornelius (see profile)
    Date:
    2017
    Group(s):
    CLCS Medieval
    Subject(s):
    Latin language, Latin literature, Education, History, England, Middle Ages, Rhetoric
    Item Type:
    Article
    Tag(s):
    literacy, Latin language and literature, History of education, Medieval England
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/M6NV8P
    Abstract:
    A survey of the foundational disciplines of literate culture in the British isles, from the failure of the Roman imperial project in the fifth century to Henry VIII’s promulgation of uniform Latin grammars in 1540-42. Grammar and rhetoric were the disciplines charged with teaching correct and effective use of language in antiquity. In the Middle Ages, these disciplines served to maintain Latin as a language of culture, religion, and administration over much of Europe. Grammatical studies flourished in medieval England following the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity. Subsequent developments in grammatical and rhetorical studies in Britain in the Middle Ages track deep changes in the social conditioning of literacy and social demands upon literacy. Among the medieval English innovations in these disciplines were the teaching of Latin as a foreign language, the cultural accommodation of grammar and rhetoric to Christianity, the creation of new genres of rhetorical textbooks, and the development of bilingual pedagogies that paired Latin with vernacular languages.
    Notes:
    section outline: 1. Inheritance and innovation: an overview — 2. After empire (beginnings to 600) — 3. Missionary grammar (600-800) — 4. Losses and recoveries (800-1150) — 5. An expanded field (1150-1450) — 6. Plague, print, and humanism (1350-1542)
    Metadata:
    xml
    Published as:
    Book chapter     Show details
    Publisher:
    Wiley-Blackwell
    Pub. Date:
    2017
    Book Title:
    Encyclopedia of Medieval Literature in Britain
    Author/Editor:
    Siân Echard and Richard Rouse
    Chapter:
    Grammars and Rhetorics
    ISBN:
    978-1-118-39698-8
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    6 years ago
    License:
    All Rights Reserved

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