Colloquia Part I: Before the 16th century
Plus, images of summer with Latin verses!
This is the first part of a series of posts about Latin colloquia. The true Golden Age of the didactic colloquium was the 16th century, but there are a few notable earlier editions of this scholastic genre of literature.
Why colloquia?
They are a great place to start learning about conversational Latin! Somewhat ironically, most of the people I know who speak Latin advocate using the Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata textbook series as an introduction to Latin, but LLPSI doesn’t really teach you conversational Latin. That isn’t the focus of the book. There are other more recent resources for learning to speak Latin, but many of these older colloquia are still very helpful for today’s learners. Out of the three editions highlighted today, I think the Hermeneumata Pseudodositheana are the simplest and most accessible for learners.
Also, these colloquia are a treasure trove of information about the daily lives of the people in various centuries and cultures. Because these colloquia deal with the familiar and the quotidian, we can learn a lot about the clothes, food, routines, education, and material culture of the societies of the authors who produced these dialogues.
Hermeneumata Pseudodositheana (bilingual Greek-Latin, 3rd century CE)
These are the first colloquia for learners that I’m aware of. They aren’t the flowery dialogues of the later Renaissance authors like Pontanus, but they are the only colloquia we have by a native speaker of the Latin language and a great way to experience Roman Latin of a colloquial register. They are written for schoolchildren who were either Greek speakers learning Latin or Latin speakers learning Greek, and generally deal with activities in the ancient classroom the daily lives of young Romans. They include vocabulary for the classroom, animals, the gods, clothing, among other topics. We also have a more recent edition by Eleanor Dickey, renown scholar on the pedagogy of antiquity.
Ælfric’s Colloquy, bilingual Latin-Old English, 10th century
The abbot of a Benedictine abbey, Ælfric, wrote down these conversations with his pupils in 10th century Wessex. They offer valuable insights into the daily lives of the working class of Anglo-Saxon England, for which otherwise there are scant literary resources. Conversations included are with a birdcatcher, a fisherman, and a tanner, and other merchants and laborers. There is an intralinear Old English translation. There are other early scholastic colloquies linked in the volume above, which I am less familiar with. The Colloquy of Ælfric begins on p. 75. Here is a link to the manuscript at the British Library.
Manuale Scholarium, Latin, 15th century
This is my favorite “early” colloquium. It’s a series of dialogues between medieval university students. It can be ribald, and these students are at times insulting and rowdy. It, does, however, give an account of life at a 15th century German university that can seem surprisingly familiar to the university student of the present day. Topics discussed include expenses such as books, exams, how to avoid attendance, women, leisure time, how to get along with your roommates, and the initiation (hazing?) of a new student.
Aestas: Images of Summer
The Lupus Alatus Istagram is up and running! In one of my recent posts, you can find 16th and 17th century engravings of scenes of summer. Many engravings of these time period are accompanied by verses, usually hexameter or elegiac couplets. I’ve transcribed and translated these verses about summer. Check out the IG post to see the other images of Aestas and translations of the verses.
Meta has released their “Twitter killer” app Threads. If you are thinking about joining, Lupus Alatus is also active there. It’s basically Twitter II or IX or whatever iteration we are on.
Do you know of any other scholastic colloquia from before the 16th century? If so, please let us know!
Fruiminī diēbus aestīvīs et cūrāte ut valeātis!