Latinity

1. The manner in which Latin is used in speaking or writing.
2. Latin quality or character: Her speech was marked by florid Latinity.
3. A Latinism.
4. Latin literature: This concept is not found in all of Latinity.

The various educational systems in France up until the time of the Revolution, both ecclesiastical and secular, ensured that a sound knowledge of Latin and a good acquaintance with Latin authors were acquired by those who attended school. Latin was the language of the classroom (and even the playground) until the second half of the 18th c., and, as a result, pupils learnt to compose verse and prose in Latin before they did in French. Many continued to write in Latin after leaving school, and this resulted in a vast corpus of literature which remained vital and innovative until at least the mid-17th c., and which enjoyed a richly symbiotic relationship with the vernacular.

1. Medieval

Until the 11th c. Latin was virtually unrivalled as the literary language of France. The poetry of the late classical writer Ausonius (c.310-c.395), written in a wide range of quantitative metres, contains works which movingly express his affection for his native Bordeaux and for his relatives and friends, as well as the famous ‘Idyll’ on the Moselle, notable for its appreciation of the natural world. His Epistles contain poems to and from his pupil Paulinus of Nola (353-431; these touchingly bear witness to their friendship, and also to Paulinus's Christianity, which in later years inspired him to write a new kind of poetry: classical in form and style but Christian in sentiment. Following this example, the 5th c. saw a surge of Christian Latin poets, of whom the Lyon-born Sidonius Apollinaris (c.430-479) is the most significant as the author of a collection of 24 extant poems, including 8 panegyrics, and of 9 books of prose epistles. In the 6th c. it is the Italian Venantius Fortunatus (c.540-c.600), author of the beautiful Passion hymn ‘Pange, lingua’, who is the main writer of both religious and secular poetry in France and who marks, in his hymns, a break with quantitative metres and a move to rhythmical and rhyming verse. The Historia Francorum of Gregory of Tours (c.538-c.594) provides us with a rare historical work from this early period.

Subsequently, it was not until the 8th c. and the Carolingian Empire that Latin literature again flourished in France, with scholars from all over Europe being attracted to the court of Charlemagne: the Englishman Alcuin (c.735-804), who helped to systematize the teaching of the trivium (grammar, rhetoric, dialectic); the Spaniard Theodulf (c.760-821), bishop of Orléans, whose literary inspiration came largely from the classical tradition; the Italian Paulinus of Aquileia (d. 802), who did much to establish rhythmical metres, modelled on popular Latin verse. After the death of Charlemagne in 814 literary writing declined somewhat, though the monastic schools maintained a strong interest in classical literature, and verse composition formed part of the regular curriculum. This tradition was continued in the cathedral schools of the 10th and 11th c., for example at Reims, and at Chartres under the direction of Fulbert (c.960-1028), himself the author of both quantitative and rhythmical poetry. Of the many writers of this period, it is worth mentioning Hildebert de Lavardin (1056-1133), Bérenger de Tours (999-1088, Baudri de Bourgueil (1046-1130), and Marbode de Rennes (c.1035-1123), the author of a rhetorical work De ornamentis verborum and the Liber lapidum on the properties of precious stones, as well as of lighter verse. Quantitative metres (particularly the elegiac couplet) continued to coexist with rhythmical and rhyming metres.

Although the final years of the 11th c. saw the beginning of a rich vernacular literature in France in the form of the chanson de geste, Latin literature, with its international audience of scholars and churchmen, went from strength to strength in the fertile intellectual climate of 12th-c. France. Paris became firmly established as the intellectual capital of Europe, where the great debates between rival philosophical schools were acted out [see Scholasticism]. Autobiographical writings reveal something of the personalities of such men as Abélard (in the Historia calamitatum) and Guibert de Nogent, famous too for his history of the Crusades, while Abbot Suger (1081-1151) composed a biography of Louis VI. Later we have the eloquent prose writing of Pierre de Blois (c.1140-1212) as an example of the epistolary genre, and the influential De amore of Andreas Capellanus, which codified the rules of courtly love [see Fin'amor]. Religious poetry continued to be important. The imposing abbey of Cluny housed a number of religious poets, including Pierre le Vénérable (c.1092-1156) and Bernard de Morlaas (b. early 12th c.); and both Abélard and the mystic Bernard de Clairvaux contributed impressive works to the genre. Later, the sequence, a verse form originally used to embellish the Alleluia of the Mass and now regularized in rhythm and rhyme, became the dominant verse form, particularly in the hands of Adam de Saint Victor (d. c.1177). Secular poetry reflects the concerns and interests of the age. Philosophical works were composed by Abélard (Astrolabius), Bernard Silvestris de Tours (fl. 1145-53), author of the Platonizing De mundi universitate, and Alan of Lille, famous for his Anticlaudianus, one of the earliest medieval works to make systematic use of allegory. His satire, the De planctu naturae, also exploits allegory. As a satirist, Bernard de Cluny is far more outspoken in his condemnation of worldly vices, including those of the Church.

Epic poetry, in some cases inspired by the vernacular chansons de geste, flourishes in the 12th c., with the Alexandreis of Gautier de Châtillon representing the best example. Of considerable importance too is the 12th-c. Latin lyric, with its highly personal content and style, which has maintained an abiding appeal, especially with regard to the so-called Goliardic poets, authors of secular, often scurrilous verses. Hugues Primat d'Orléans (c.1093-c.1160), in his famous ‘Dives eram et dilectus’, clearly demonstrates his poetic gifts in a vigorous rhythmical and rhyming verse-form in which he gives free rein to his often violent feelings. Gautier de Châtillon could be no less acerbic in his satires, though his poetry is often in a gentler vein, on the changing seasons or love, and his works inspired many other writers. Later we have the more moralizing poetry of Philippe le Chancelier (d. 1236). An important genre in the early Middle Ages was didactic writing, typified by the Ars versificatoria of Mathieu de Vendôme (b. c.1130) and the highly influential Doctrinale of Alexandre de Villedieu, which was still being used to teach Latin in the early 16th c.

Latin drama during the Middle Ages was largely centred upon the Church, with the development, from the 9th to the 13th c., of liturgical drama based originally upon tropes introduced into services celebrating the important feasts of the Christian year, in particular Easter [see Medieval Theatre]. Subsequently Latin miracle plays made their appearance. Other ‘dramatic’ forms developed in the 12th c., notably the comœdia, inspired by Plautus and Terence, and itself inspiring the vernacular fabliau. Examples are the Amphitryo and the Aulularia, attributed to one Vitalis who was writing in the latter part of the century, along with the Milo of Mathieu de Vendôme.

2. Renaissance and Modern

After the literary heights of the 12th c. Latin literature had to wait until the Renaissance before a vigorous new tradition offered any sort of rivalry with the vernacular. The study of Latin continued in the schools and universities, and there are indeed a few authors who have survived from the 14th c., e.g. Jean Gerson and Nicolas de Clamenges (c.1360-1440). But as early as the 15th c. there was a growing awareness that Latin was known imperfectly, and the reforms of the University of Paris by Cardinal d'Estouteville in 1452 were partly designed to correct this decline. Scholars such as Guillaume Fichet (1433-c.1480) and Robert Gaguin (c.1423-1501) further helped to prepare the ground for the neo-Latin writers of the 16th c. The invention of the printing press opened up the world of classical literature to a much wider audience than hitherto, and later François I^er provided a climate in which learning could flourish. In humanist colleges Alexandre de Villedieu's Doctrinale was finally replaced after 1511 by the grammar of Johannes Despauterius, which went into considerable detail on all aspects of Latin grammar and versification, and proved so successful that it continued to be used throughout the 17th c. However, its apparent emphasis on exceptions and its synchronic treatment of classical Latin led to what some purists felt to be a hybrid language, and indeed the century is marked by a protracted debate on Ciceronianism.

Imitation of the ancients, of course, lay at the heart of the new literary movement in France, and, during the first half of the century it was neo-Latin authors, at least in the realms of poetry and drama, who led the way. Verse composition was a central exercise for pupils in the humanist colleges which now formed the main educational establishments in France, and, of those who continued to compose in Latin in later years, it is worth mentioning Jean Salmon Macrin (1490-1557), who was one of the first writers to use the Horatian lyric metres in France in his Odes; Nicolas Bourbon (c.1503-c.1550), many of whose epigrams are sharply satirical; the Ciceronian Étienne Dolet; Marc-Antoine Muret, whose commentary on Catullus helped popularize the style mignard; Jean Dorat, whose poetry is less impressive than his influence as a teacher; Théodore de Bèze, a highly competent epigrammatist in his pre-Geneva days; the Scotsman George Buchanan, who during his time in France composed fine works in the full range of classical genres; Joachim du Bellay, whose Latin poetry during his period in Rome was so successful, despite his own strictures on neo-Latin composition in the Défense et illustration; and Michel de l'Hôpital. Between them, they would help to establish the status of poetry as a serious exercise, capable of enhancing national prestige and of influencing public opinion, especially on religious issues.

French humanist drama also has its origins in neo-Latin writers. Whilst the medieval tradition is continued by Nicolas Barthélemy de Loches (b. 1478) in his Passion play Christus xylonicus of 1529, Buchanan and Muret during their time at the Collège de Guyenne in the 1540s wrote original plays for performance by the pupils (including Montaigne), and, when subsequently they taught at the Collège de Boncourt in Paris, they clearly inspired a whole generation of vernacular play-wrights (Belleau, La Péruse, Jodelle, Jean de la Taille, Grévin).

The works of Renaissance Latin prose-writers are essentially scholarly (e.g. Budé) or religious (e.g. Calvin) in nature, though Erasmus's Moriae Encomium was to have a strong influence on the development of satire, and J.-C. Scaliger's Poetices libri septem of 1561 was responsible for popularizing Aristotelian literary ideas in France. It is really at the beginning of the 17th c. that imaginative neo-Latin prose reaches its peak with John Barclay (1592-1621) in his Euphormionis Lusini Satyricon of 1607 inspiring a tradition of satirical romans à clé. Also of note are the philosophical works of Descartes and of Gassendi.

Towards the end of the 16th c. Jesuit education began to take over from the humanist colleges in Catholic Europe, and with it Jesuit drama also became firmly established. Some of the best-known French exponents of the genre are Denis Petau, Louis Cellot (1588-1658), and Nicolas Caussin. It is the Jesuits too who provide much of the neo-Latin poetry of the 17th c., with a proliferation of epic verse (typified by Pierre Mambrun's Constantinus of 1658), agricultural works (inspired by Virgil's Georgics) written by René Rapin and Jacques Vanière (1664-1739), while a non-Jesuit, Claude Quillet (1602-61), is the author of one of the more refreshing works of the period, the Callipaedia of 1655. The Jesuit emphasis on purity of expression and content, coupled with an increasing unease at the inevitable mixture of the sacred and the profane in Latin composition, completed the decline of humanist Latin literature in the 17th c. Although the study of the classics continued to play an important part in education, Latin compositions outside the classroom are few and far between from the 18th to the 20th c. There is, however, the long Christian apologia in verse, the Anti-Lucretius of Melchior de Polignac, published in 1742. For the 19th c. it is worth mentioning the Latin poems of Baudelaire, and the libretto of Stravinsky's opera Oedipus Rex (translated from Cocteau's version by Jean Daniélou) offers a rare 20th-c. Latin work of art. [See also Classical Influences.]

[Philip Ford]

Bibliography

• E. R. Curtius, European Literature and the Late Middle Ages (1953)
• K. Strecker, Introduction to Medieval Latin (1957)
• J. IJsewijn, Companion to Neo-Latin Studies (1990)