On Fri, 21 Jun 1996, Frederik Pedersen wrote:
> The great question for me is "what is enough Latin knowledge?"
There is no c onclusive answer to this question. After all, a great deal
of Augustine has been competently translated and edited, and I suppose
most of the major works of medieval icons have been re-edited about every
ten years or so, but there still remains a great deal of original
material uncovered, i.e. registers, papal letters and sources which
require archival research. These are sources which can only interest a
certain small percentage of medievalists and are painstakingly tedious to
translate. I think Prof. Joe Goering once told us that only about 10% of
the Latin manuscripts have been edited and translated in full (someone
more knowledgeable can correct me on this). The essential point here, I
think, is whether or not one is content with recycling the sources
already translated and do a new spin on them. If one wants to branch out
and focus on teh periphery, it is quite important for a person to be able
to read just about anything there is written in LAtin (that is, at least,
the approach of the Toronto LAtin program.)
Also, reading Latin is a continuous process, and doesn't just end with
passing the exam. Even after having passed the PhD LAtin exam here at
Toronto, I have been reminded by my instructors to read as much as I can
to oriente myself to the difgferent styles of different writers. I
think any aspiring medievalist should at least have that inherent desire
to read Latin as part of his/her daily staple. In all, there is no simple
answer, in my opinion, to this question, and the burden ultimately falls
on the students.
D.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|