Medieval Reading
Grammar, Rhetoric and the Classical Text

This book argues for a radically new approach to the history of reading and literacy in the Middle Ages.

Suzanne Reynolds (Author)

9780521472579, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 22 August 1996

256 pages, 2 b/w illus.
23.5 x 15.8 x 2.6 cm, 0.575 kg

'This is an original, stimulating book which will be useful to all scholars working on reading and literacy in the Middle Ages.' Peritia

This book argues for a radically new approach to the history of reading and literacy in the Middle Ages. It investigates the use of complex literary texts as the basis of elementary instruction in the Latin language and, using medieval teachers' notes (glosses) on a classical text (Horace's Satires) and a selection of other unpublished manuscript materials, it demonstrates that the reading of classical literature was profoundly shaped by the demands of acquiring Latin literacy through the arts of grammar and rhetoric. The resolutely literal readings of Latin texts found in these educational and institutional contexts call for a reassessment of the relationship of Latin and vernacular discourses in medieval culture, and of some central notions in medieval hermeneutics, notably allegory and authorial intention.

1. Introduction
Part I. Contents for reading: 2. Learning to read: the classics and the curriculum
3. Reading and the trivium arts
Part II. Reading Practice: 4. Origins and mythologies: the invention of language and meaning
5. Reading word by word (1): the role of the vernacular
6. Reading word by word (2): grammatical and rhetorical approaches
7. From words to the phrase: the problem of syntax
8. Government: the theory and practice of a grammatical concept
9. Rival orders of syntax: vernacular, natural and artificial
10. From the phrase to the text: grammatical and rhetorical approaches again
11. Naked intention: satire and a new kind of literal reading
12. Literacy: a new model for the classical text in the middle ages?
Bibliography.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB]