Anglo-Latin literature

Anglo-Latin literature is literature from Britain originally written in Latin. It is used to refer to literature written in Latin from parts of Britain which were not in England or English-speaking, because "Anglo-" is used here as a prefix meaning British rather than English.

Early medieval

Chroniclers such as Bede (672/3–735), with his Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, and Gildas (c. 500–570), with his De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae, were figures in the development of indigenous Latin literature, mostly ecclesiastical, in the centuries following the withdrawal of the Roman Empire around the year 410.

Adomnán's (627/8–704) most important work is the Vita Columbae, a hagiography of Columba, and the most important surviving work written in early medieval Scotland. It is a vital source for knowledge of the Picts, as well as an insight into the life of Iona Abbey and the early medieval Gaelic monk. The vita of Columba contains a story that has been interpreted as the first reference to the Loch Ness Monster.

Written just after or possibly contemporarily with Adomnán's Vita Columbae, the Vita Sancti Cuthberti (c. 699–705) is the first piece of Northumbrian Latin writing and the earliest piece of English Latin hagiography.^[1]

The Historia Brittonum composed in the 9th century is traditionally ascribed to Nennius. It is the earliest source which presents King Arthur as a historical figure, and is the source of several stories which were repeated and amplified by later authors.

• see also: Stephen of Ripon, Vita sancti Wilfrithi (709 x 720); Alcuin [or Ealhwine] of York, c. 735 – 19 May 804); Asser (d. 908/9)

Central medieval

• Orderic Vitalis (1075 – c. 1142)
• William of Malmesbury (c. 1080/1095 – c. 1143)
• Geoffrey of Monmouth (1100 – c. 1155), Historia Regum Britanniæ
• John of Salisbury (c. 1120 – c. 1180)
• Gervase of Tilbury (c. 1150 – c. 1228)
• Gerald of Wales (1146 - 1243)
• Michael Scot (1175 – c. 1232)
• Alexander of Hales (c. 1185 – 1245)
• Roger Bacon (c. 1214 – 1294)
• Duns Scotus (c. 1266 – 8 November 1308)
• William of Ockham (c. 1288 – c. 1348)

Late medieval and renaissance

• Johannes Gower (John Gower, c. 1330 – October 1408), Vox Clamantis
• Thomas Morus (Thomas More, 7 February 1478 – 6 July 1535), Utopia
• George Buchanan (February 1506 – 28 September 1582)

Modern literature

• Franciscus Baconus (Francis Bacon, 22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626), Novum Organum
• John Barclay (28 January 1582 — 15 August 1621), Argenis
• Thomas Hobbesius (Thomas Hobbes, 5 April 1588 – 4 December 1679)
• Arthur Johnston (c.1579–1641)
• John Johnston (1570?–1611)
• Johannes Milton (John Milton, 9 December 1608 – 8 November 1674), Defensio pro Populo Anglicano, De Doctrina Christiana
• Isaac Newton 4 January 1643 – 31 March 1727, Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica
• Vincent Bourne (1695 – 1747)

Further reading

• Carlson, David (2011). "Anglo-Latin literature in the later Middle Ages". In Andrew Galloway (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Medieval English Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 195–216. doi:10.1017/CCOL9780521856898.010. ISBN 9780511975646. Retrieved 2013-11-01.  CS1 maint: Uses editors parameter (link)
• Echard, Siân and Gernot R. Wieland (eds.) (2001). Anglo-Latin and its heritage: essays in honour of A.G. Rigg on his 64th birthday. Publications of the Journal of Medieval Latin 4. Turnhout: Brepols. ISBN 2503508383.  CS1 maint: Uses authors parameter (link)
• Lapidge, Michael (1993). Anglo-Latin literature, 900–1066. London: Hambledon Press. ISBN 1852850124. 
• Lapidge, Michael (1996). Anglo-Latin literature, 600–899. London: Hambledon Press. ISBN 1852850116. 
• Rigg, A.G. (1992). A History of Anglo-Latin Literature, 1066–1422. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521415942. 
• Rigg, A.G. (1996). "Anglo-Latin". In Timothy J. McGee (ed.). Singing Early Music: The Pronunciation of European Languages in the Late Middle Ages and Renaissance. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. pp. 46–61. ISBN 0253210267.  CS1 maint: Uses editors parameter (link)
• Sharpe, Richard (1997). A handlist of the Latin writers of Great Britain and Ireland before 1540. Publications of the Journal of Medieval Latin. Turnhout: Brepols. ISBN 2503505759.  Reprinted with a supplement in 2001.
• White, Carolinne (2002). "Medieval senses of classical words". Peritia. 16: 131–143. doi:10.1484/J.Peri.3.482. 

See also

• British literature
• Hiberno-Latin
• Latin literature
• Literature in the other languages of Britain
• Traditional English pronunciation of Latin
• Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources

References