What experience do you all have with Latin composition books, both prose and poetry? I’ve been looking into a few prose books, and as far as I can tell they aren’t much more than grammar summaries followed by some sentence translations. They seem more useful for review than composition specifically.
Nevertheless, I’ve been reading through Milena Minkova’s “Introduction to Latin Prose Composition,” and it’s been helpful. Overall, it’s modern and more sensical than the many outdated textbooks I’ve seen. Besides outlines of the different categories and functions of Latin grammar, she provides helpful sections on word choice, as well as a variety of exercises. You get to see how she goes about summarizing, rephrasing, or making questions and answers about Latin texts.
I regretfully neglect reading Latin poetry as often as I ought, so I haven’t dared even approach a verse composition book yet.
I was actually just about to start a thread with this very question. I’d like to go through a composition text, but I don’t know what to even look for in a composition text.
I assume it would be best to use one that has a key. Textkit has the North and Hillard composition text and key.
Belcher, R. H. 1879 – Short exercises in Latin prose composition
Beverly, A. 1868 – Exercises in Latin prose composition
Smith, J. H. 1878 – Exercises on the elementary principles of Latin prose composition
Frost, P. 1852 – Materials for Latin prose
England and Roby 1881 – Exercises in Latin syntax and idiom, arranged with reference to Roby’s
Bradley, W. W. 1855 – Latin exercises
Bennett, G. L. 1879 – First Latin writer
There may be others linked from that page that I missed, but this is 8 books with keys, and so surely one or more of them are good. Does anyone have familiarity with these to know which one to pick?
I have also seen Bradley’s Arnold Latin Prose Composition in the bookstores, and it looked like it might be a good book, but I don’t know of a key for it.
I own a copy of the Minkova “Introduction to Latin Prose Composition” as well, and it’s valuable as a reference tool…but not much more. What I have found better is another book of her’s called “Readings and Exercises in Latin Prose Composition.” This is perhaps the best composition text I’ve seen, though it doesn’t have the kind of grammatical explanations found in her intoductory book. Each chapter begins with a selection from a Latin author and then prods you about it with questions, asks you to rewrite parts using certain words, etc. An answer key is also available, though it’s not necessarily helpful considering the variety of ways with which you can respond.
There’s also “Writing Latin” by Richard Ashdowne and James Morwood. It structured more like Minova’s “Introduction to…” but has great translation exercizes at the end of each chapter. It’s much more fun, many of the sentences are relevant to Roman lives outside of the military and politics, and contains sentences to translate such as “You must help your friend so that he doesn’t get lost in the city and go into a brothel,” and “Nero should take better care of his mother.”
For Latin Poetry, I recently bought (but am not going to work through yet…it’s very advanced) David Califf’s “A Guide to Latin Meter and Verse Composition.” It explains a lot about the art of crafting poetry and teaches you to recognize things in Roman poets such as the importance of aliteration, consonance, caesurae, etc. There are many varied exercises to work through, both in scansion and authoring that would at the very least give one a better appreciation for Roman verse.
I went in search for the above three because most of the older composition texts are simply too boring and too rote. However, excepting Ashdowne’s “Writing Latin,” the others are just too difficult for me right now.
Thank you cdm2003. I’m going to look into “Readings and Exercises” as soon as possible.
I wonder, are all composition books solely based on classical Latin? If that’s so, it seems a little restrictive, but it’s probably a good guide nevertheless.
While looking for it I noticed another book authored by Milena Minkova and Terence Tunberg: “Latin for the New Millenium.” http://www.amazon.com/Latin-New-Millennium-Student-Text/dp/0865165602/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1203630632&sr=8-6
It doesn’t look suited to independent study, but based on the description of it and what I know of the Univerity of Kentucky and Professor Tunberg’s work (namely, broad ranging, diverse, and spoken Latin), I’d be very interested in browsing through it.
Actually, the “Readings and Exercises…” book I mentioned above is actually “Readings and Exercises in Latin Prose Composition: From Antiquity to the Renaissance.” So, though heavily weighted in Classical reading comprehension, she also has you work with selections from Erasmus, Thomas More, the Vita Caroli Magni, Abelard, and St. Augustine.