New Latin

Neo-Latin literature is the literature written in Latin of Renaissance humanism and the subsequent periods of the modern era to the present day. It begins with the works of early humanism in the first half of the 14th century, but also works (mainly seals) were written until the late 15th century, belonging to the medieval Latin literature. In the 14th and 15th century Middle Latin and neo-Latin literature existed side by side; for Neo-Latin literature of this period include those works whose authors saw themselves as humanists.

From the medieval Latin literature distinguishes the neo-Latin in that it strictly based on those considered to be classic antique models, especially at the literature of the era of the Golden Latinity. The vocabulary and syntax of these models where the humanists to a binding norm. Therefore, the Neulatein knows unlike the Medieval Latin no language development, but is fixed. The term " neulateinisch " is therefore misleading, because it is not a "new " Latin, but a consistent return to a certain stage of the ancient Latinity. This means a deliberate restriction on the literary expression possibilities that exist within the limits set out therein, and thus largely to substances which are suitable for presentation in such a framework. Then takes the slogan of the "dead " language reference, a language which no longer continue developing and adapting to new needs.

Latin Literature of the Renaissance

The Renaissance is the literary field a rebirth of the ancient Latinity. In conscious departure from the perceived to be inelegant Medieval Latin, especially from the technical language of scholasticism, the first humanists, Petrarch and Boccaccio are based on the classics of Roman literature, especially on Cicero. Also north of the Alps sits down during the Renaissance, the style of classics by where Erasmus of Rotterdam with its elegant Latin plays an important role. The problem of an imitative, fixed on the model of Cicero literature is discussed in the controversy surrounding the Ciceronianism in which the humanists reflect on the meaning and limits of the imitating of models.

Reformation and Counter-Reformation promoted the Latin. Luther's friend Philip Melanchthon wrote textbooks and curricula for the newly established Protestant schools, whose main goal was an active mastery of Latin.

In letters to Nicolaus Copernicus can pursue a transition to neo-Latin language of scholars in the twenties and thirties of the 16th century. The Heidelberg professor and rector John Sculteti (around 1450-1526 ) used in 1521 still a relatively cumbersome mediaeval Latin, Gemma R. Frisius ( 1508-1555 ) wrote in 1541, a clear and pictorial Neulatein.

Latin Literature from the 17th to the 19th century

The Jesuits delight you with her Latin school play as the general masses. A Jesuit, Jacob Balde (1604-1668), considered the greatest among the Latin writing German Baroque poets. Generations of children learn with the Orbis pictus sensualium, the famous German -Latin picture book of the great pedagogue Comenius since 1658 Latin.

With the rise of national languages ​​since the 17th century Latin lost more and more ground. In Germany in 1681 for the first time more books in German and in Latin published. Latin fiction and the novel was published in 1741 Nikolai Klimii iter subterraneum the Dane Ludvig Holberg was now the exception. Remained important but Latin as an international means in science: Nicolaus Copernicus, Johannes Kepler and Galileo Galilei published their groundbreaking astronomical findings in Latin, the Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica by Isaac Newton appeared yet in 1687 in Latin. The philosopher René Descartes became famous for his statement Cogito ergo sum from his Principia Philosophiae, and Arthur Schopenhauer wrote even in 1830 his Theoria COLORUM physiologica in Latin. The naturae of the Swede Carl Linnaeus in his Systema 1735 developed method to classify living things in Latin, is still in use today. Especially in the Netherlands, written not a few authors such as Hieronymus Bosch extensive de carmina in Latin to the threshold of the 19th century.

20th and 21st centuries

Was also in the 20th and 21st century and created Latin literature. The secondary school teacher and Tübingen Indologist Hermann Weller wrote in classical metrics numerous award-winning poems, which appeared in 1938 and 1946 collected. Josef Eberle, the longtime editor of the Stuttgarter Zeitung, wrote Latin poems especially for the Sunday supplement of his blade. Eberle was crowned in 1962 by the University of Tübingen in line with the tradition of the early modern period with the bay. Also known are the satires and epigrams of the Berlin-born American Harry C. cord (C. Arrius Nurus ). In Göttingen Fidel Rädle written Latin poems. 1989 by the Heidelberg Latinist Michael von Albrecht is the satirical utopian novel " Memoirs of a monkey " in Latin published. Because of their soulful poems as Sappho of Marburg known Anna Elissa Radke.

Text collections

• Michael von Albrecht ( ed.): Scripta Latina. Accedunt variorum carmina Heidelbergensia, dissertatiunculae, colloquia. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 1989, ISBN 3-8204-9938-5 (contains, inter alia, numerous neo-Latin poems of the 20th century )

• Josef Eberle ( Eds.): Viva Camena. Latina huius Aetatis carmina. Artemis, Zurich 1961
• Vito R. Giustiniani: Neo-Latin poetry in Italy from 1850 to 1950. An unexplored chapter of Italian literature and intellectual history. Niemeyer, Tübingen 1979, ISBN 3-484-52079-5
• Leo M. Kaiser: Early American Latin Verse, 1625-1825. An Anthology. Bolchazy - Carducci, Chicago 1984, ISBN 0-86516-029-5
• James J. Mertz and John P. Murphy: Jesuit Latin Poets of the 17th and 18th Centuries. An Anthology of Neo - Latin Poetry. Bolchazy - Carducci, Wauconda (Illinois ), 1989, ISBN 0-86516-214- X
• Fred J. Nichols (eds.): An Anthology of Neo - Latin Poetry. Yale University Press, New Haven 1979, ISBN 0-300-02365-0

• Fidel Rädle (ed.): Latin religious dramas of the XVI. Century with German translations. De Gruyter, Berlin 1979, ISBN 3-11-003383-6

• Alfons Fitzek (ed.): Latin in our time. European cultural history in the mirror of honor certificates. Naumann, Würzburg, 1990, ISBN 3-88567-060-7 (41 Latin certificates of honor of the 20th century with German translation )