School level textbook in Latin (not language)

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will.dawe
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School level textbook in Latin (not language)

Post by will.dawe »

Sorry for live URLs, but they all lead to Archive.org.

I am curious to try reading Math, Physics, or Geography textbooks written in Latin. However, my attempts to find suchlike books in Archive.org are not very succesfull:
  1. Arithmetica (1562)
  2. Institutiones mathematicae (Ferdinando Pistillo, 1787)
Second book is interesting, but lacks of exercices and practice. And the teaching methods are quite outdated (not a joke).

Looking at Spanish textbooks of the late XIX, I see usual syllabus which I studied in my primes.:
It is expected that teaching methods evolve through the time, but I am not able to find any school-level Latin textbook published in XIX.

Am I not lucky in choosing right keywords? Did Latin completely lose its position in school education of XIX, so other disciplines were teached only on natinal languages? What about modern catholic schools and colleges, do they study Latin or teach on Latin? Do you know any modern books, teaching 5-8 grades school disciplines in Latin, published in last years?
Last edited by will.dawe on Sat Apr 13, 2019 8:14 am, edited 1 time in total.
Two verses he could recollect // Of the Æneid, but incorrect.

Callisper
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Re: School level textbook in Latin (not language)

Post by Callisper »

A very interesting idea to collect some of these.

In fact the amount of scientific literature available in Latin is vast. Check out CNLS (Companion to Neo-Latin Studies) and the Brill Encyclopedia of Neo-Latin, both of which have long extended sections on these. They will mention plenty of the main works. But how many of these could be considered 'textbooks' let alone 'school-textbooks' I don't know.

I have almost no experience in this field - indeed, in my browsings of CNLS and Brill, I've avoided these sections - but some interest could be induced in me by exciting findings. I wonder if such textbooks have been subjected to any kind of meaningful research yet, like e.g. asking as you do how the teaching methodologies varied with time for each subject. If they have not, it could be a fruitful area for a new scholar. I doubt whether a full-ish or representative list of textbooks (at any level) has been drawn up, except maybe medical textbooks. That too would be a start. These are scholarly desiderata and the world would be indebted to you for working on them.

It's unfortunate you have not been able to post links so far as you seem like a very active contributor.

BTW - it would be worthwhile to search in Google, Google Books, and HathiTrust, not just archive.org. These are probably the most productive ways to find more books, unless you can find scholarship already done on them which may mention a few, or even (ideally) a bibliography already compiled - CNLS or Brill may refer to some such scholarship, or you may search on Google Scholar or Google generally.

Dozens of textbooks seem to come up pretty quickly just under the names "Institutiones mathematicae" and "Institutiones physicae". Don't worry about whether they are all available to read online; if you have good reason to believe they are more than a re-issue of past material, just take down the bibliographical details and we can get ahold of a copy when the time comes.

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Re: School level textbook in Latin (not language)

Post by jeidsath »

There's always Euclid.
“One might get one’s Greek from the very lips of Homer and Plato." "In which case they would certainly plough you for the Little-go. The German scholars have improved Greek so much.”

Joel Eidsath -- jeidsath@gmail.com

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Re: School level textbook in Latin (not language)

Post by Callisper »

will.dawe wrote: Fri Apr 12, 2019 7:43 pm It is expected that teaching methods evolved through the time, but I am not able to find any school-level Latin textbook published in XIX.

Am I not lucky in choosing right keywords? Did Latin completely lose its position in school education of XIX, so other disciplines were teached only on natinal languages?
These two books found straight-away on Google Books are both from 1807 apparently:
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=_tA2AAAAMAAJ
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ISh6mmGhfu0C
There will be many more examples from such times.

My expectation would be that use of such textbooks should be waning but still prominently extant through to about 1850. After that, you may not easily find any examples, as Latin was no longer used as the language of instruction in schools, especially outside the Latin classroom itself.
will.dawe wrote: Fri Apr 12, 2019 7:43 pmWhat about modern catholic schools and colleges, do they study Latin or teach on Latin? Do you know any modern books, teaching 5-8 grades school disciplines in Latin, published in last years?
Such a question is also of interest to me but very recondite. It would be impressive to find any such publication - even Latin-language textbooks teaching Latin and Greek are difficult to find (though not impossible) published after around 1900. I'd be interested to hear of anything teaching another subject in Latin (or ancient Greek of course).

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Re: School level textbook in Latin (not language)

Post by Callisper »

jeidsath wrote: Fri Apr 12, 2019 10:33 pm There's always Euclid.
As I understood, we are not looking for the primary works of mathematicians - of which there is an infinitude as they mostly published in Latin up to around 1750(or later?) - but rather purpose-written school textbooks. OP should correct me if I am mistaken as my answers are probably wasted otherwise.

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Re: School level textbook in Latin (not language)

Post by bedwere »

will.dawe wrote: Fri Apr 12, 2019 7:43 pm What about modern catholic schools and colleges, do they study Latin or teach on Latin?
In some catholic schools they teach Latin, in a few they teach also Latin conversation (e.g., Dr. Llewellyn of Belmont Abbey College and organizer of VINCULUM) , but they definitely do not teach other subjects in Latin.

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Re: School level textbook in Latin (not language)

Post by Laurentius Mons »

The Societas Iesu (the Jesuits) published textbooks in Latin even in the 20th century. I've seen such books in the library of the Accademia Vivarium Novum. However, I don't remember any specific titles, unfortunately.

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Re: School level textbook in Latin (not language)

Post by Carolus Raeticus »

Salvete!

The only "school level textbook" I am aware of is Michael Pexenfelder's Apparatus eruditionis tam rerum quam verborum per omnes artes et scientias (1670).

This "Apparatus", according to the German introduction to the digitized work, shows the knowledge taught in Latin schools of the 17th century, especially Jesuit "Gymnasien". The presentation in the book aims at explaining words and things (these words stand for) at the same time and so combine a comprehensive Latin lexicon (vocabulary) with encyclopaedic knowledge. The book uses the form of a dialogue between a paternal amiable teacher and a curious pupil. Subjects covered: inanimate nature, plants, animals, (hu)man and his body and illnesses, his economic and intellectual pursuits, history, morals, medicine, law, theology, society, and at last religion, symbolism.

It would be nice to have a look at one of these modern Jesuit textbooks, provided that these do not merely cover teaching Latin itself.

Valete,

Carolus Raeticus
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will.dawe
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Re: School level textbook in Latin (not language)

Post by will.dawe »

Thank you all for valuable ideas.

It would be wonderful to get Jesuits' textbooks, but to the date I have found only this sentence from the book "The Jesuits As Educators" (1885):
Except in the case of Natural Sciences, the lectures, repetitions and text-books are all in the Latin language.
There is a mysterious reference in the section "Regulae professoris mathematicae", but I was unlucky to find where does it lead:
Qui auctores, quo tempore, quibus explicandi. p. 4 c. n, c.
Jesuits' literaure is numerous on Archive.org, and I think have checked everything from XX century, especially "Jesuit Educational Quarterly", but still have not noted any mention of particular textbooks used in Jesuits colleges.

There was an attempt of introducing full-Latin education in schools of US, but it ended with modest result in language teaching textbook but no other disciplines — Confederate Classical Textbooks: A Lost Cause? I have read several scientific research on the topic of textbooks in XIX century, but non of them mention serious use of Latin language in US or Europe. "Orbis Sensualium Pictus" by Jan Komenský was still popular in primary education in the first quarter of XIX.

Arithmetica, algebra, &c.
  1. Tractatus de arte numerandi (Joannis de Sacro-Bosco, ?) — very nice article, though too short and simple, but I recommend it as a "light reading" for humanitarians.
  2. Arithmetica (?, 1562) — it's really old, but may be the most fitting criteria of the book I am looking for.
  3. Institutiones mathematicae (Ferdinando Pistillo, 1787) - similar to the previous work, but explained hard way.
  4. Institutiones mathematicae, vol. 1 & vol. 2 (1807) — much more complicated and serious, not a primary school level.
  5. Euclidis opera omnia (ed. of 1883 year) — millennia-long classic of math. Combined Greek/Latin version.
Geographia

This discipline was probably the first started teaching in native languages, so most of Latin books tell only about the time of ancient Roman empire. Below is an example:
  1. Geographia antiqua (Christoph Cellarius, 1782)
Conclusion

That is all I have found at this moment. XIX century was fruitless for Latin textbooks, XVII-XVIII centuries are richer but education system of that time is quite outdated, I do not think Chemistry or Physics knowledge from 17 c. would be interesting for modern people.

Books collection I could recommend:
  • Thesaurus Eruditionis (CAMENA project) — collection of neolatin authors carefully organized by subject area.
  • Ancient History (Collection of different documents) in four volumes (1, 2, 3, 4) — completely opposite to the previous, but this unordered heap does contain valuable books (not only historical).
Two verses he could recollect // Of the Æneid, but incorrect.

Callisper
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Re: School level textbook in Latin (not language)

Post by Callisper »

will.dawe wrote: Thu Aug 08, 2019 2:51 am That is all I have found at this moment. XIX century was fruitless for Latin textbooks, XVII-XVIII centuries are richer but education system of that time is quite outdated, I do not think Chemistry or Physics knowledge from 17 c. would be interesting for modern people.
I take it you did not put my advice into practice and simply search for more books from 1800+ in Google Books.

The very first result alone, besides the Institutiones Mathematicae I posted originally, may well meet your criteria:

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=lGjcrSKo_TAC (Metzburg, "Institutiones mathematicae in usum tironum conscriptae", 1807 - Volume 1)
To me the material looks accessible, even much of it easy, for school students. The taste in the 19th century was not to spoon-feed through baby-steps as it now may be.
Volume 2 is also available.

In short, I think there should be no challenge to find a mathematics textbook from 1800-1850 at school-level.

As for research, there are Latin publications after 1850 by mathematicians as prominent as Riemann, and as late as 1800 by Gauss himself. And there is this recent curiosity: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.10 ... -4478-4_18.

will.dawe
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Re: School level textbook in Latin (not language)

Post by will.dawe »

Dear @Callisper, the book "Institutiones mathematicae in usum tironum conscriptae" is very interesting and really fitting my criteria, thank you for good find.
Two verses he could recollect // Of the Æneid, but incorrect.

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