Greetings!
I would like to elicit your suggestions in narrowing down my choice of textbook(s). I’m a relative beginner in Latin though have some degree of familiarity with liturgical Latin (and will be continuing onwards with an ecclesiastical or Italianate pronunciation). My choices are:
Curses Linguae Latinae Vivae, 2nd Edition, Familia Sancta Hieronymi.
Lingua Latina per se Illustrata, Pars I: Familia Romana, Ørberg.
Latin Grammar, Fr. Henle.
Latin: An Intensive Course, Moreland and Fleisher.
Wheelock’s Latin, Wheelock.
My objective for the immediate future is to attain mastery of the Psalms of the Clementine Vulgate.
Any suggestions and advice would be appreciated!
If I were you, I’d do also translation from English to Latin. On Textkit we have several resources, some with their respective keys. http://www.textkit.com/latin_grammar.php
But do post your exercises here as well.
Those all look rather hard for a self learner. If I were you, I’d use one of these free textbooks:
D’ooge, Latin for beginners + key
Nutting, A Latin Primer + key
Or this lesser-known “natural” method, easier than Orberg:
W. Most, Latin by the Natural Method.
This last textbook was written by a theologian, it uses low Latin to ease the transition to the classical dialect, using the Vulgate as a model. So it should correspond nicely to your stated goal.
A great help for learning Latin is to first master a romance language (Italian, Spanish, French). It’s the closest we have to Latin immersion.
[*] Latin: An Intensive Course, Moreland and Fleisher - This packs a lot into one chapter, which makes it tough going for an autodidact. In its favor, the vocabularies are in neat columns, enabling you to quiz yourself by covering a column up with a slip of paper. Explanations are clear. Answer keys can be found online.
[*] Wheelock’s Latin, Wheelock - I never could get on with this one. Between Wheelock and the Intensive Course, I’d choose Moreland and Fleisher.
[*] Lingua Latina per se Illustrata - I really like this text. Plenty of extras exist for use in conjunction with it. There are quite affordable recordings available as mp3 downloads from amazon in either pronunciation. More elementary, but in the same style, you may like the New Latin Primer, Cornelia, and Carolus et Maria, which are synchronised with each other and available as free downloads.
[*] Curses Linguae Latinae Vivae - I have no direct experience with this, but Bedware has a nice review of this on his youtube channel.
Everyone, thank you very much for your feedback!