De Lingua Latina X has never been so courageously edited nor so daringly translated as in this long-awaited sequel to Taylor’s Declinatio (SiHoLS 2). The editor’s intimate familiarity with both the extant archetype and Varro’s unique linguistic theory and practice make this volume indispensable for an understanding of LL X, one of the most important texts in the entire corpus of Latin grammatical writings. The stimulating Prolegomena introduce Varro, his revolutionary language science, book ten, and both the manuscript and the editorial traditions, and the Commentary explains in absorbing detail how and why the editor has set the text as he has. The world’s foremost Varro scholar of this day has successfully combined classical philology and the history of linguistics to produce an inspired new edition and novel translation of book ten of Varro’s magnum opus.
Marcus Terentius Varro (116-27 BC) was the greatest polymath of the Roman republic. During his lifetime he authored several hundred books, and though many of them dealt with linguistic topics, the De lingua Latina ('On the Latin language'), the first large-scale linguistic treatment of Latin, was by far his most significant work. Originally consisting of twenty-five volumes - one introductory, followed by six on etymology, six on morphology, and twelve on syntax - only books 5-10 treating etymology and morphology have come down to us in a more or less complete form, though a fair number of fragments of other volumes have been transmitted in other authors. The present two volumes aim to provide a comprehensive treatment of this highly technical text in a new critical edition accompanied by a clear, accurate translation and full commentary. In Volume I, an introductory study outlines Varro's life and works, analysing his own linguistic usage and setting his insights about language in their historical and intellectual context. His etymology and morphology are contrasted with our own modern methods, yielding important and sometimes surprising insights into how an educated Roman looked at the history of his own language: although his etymology is, by current standards, pre-scientific, it is actually quite often in agreement with modern etymology, while his morphology also has much in common with a modern approach, focusing on the question of how regular language is and providing arguments against and in favour of regularity. Detailed discussions of these and other of Varro's linguistic ideas are brought to the fore in the exhaustive commentary in Volume II, which also sheds much needed light on the work's textual problems, cultural background, and distinctive Varronian style, and will be indispensible to scholars and students of both classics and linguistics.
De Lingua Latina X has never been so courageously edited nor so daringly translated as in this long-awaited sequel to Taylor's Declinatio (SiHoLS 2). The editor's intimate familiarity with both the extant archetype and Varro's unique linguistic theory and practice make this volume indispensable for an understanding of LL X, one of the most important texts in the entire corpus of Latin grammatical writings. The stimulating Prolegomena introduce Varro, his revolutionary language science, book ten, and both the manuscript and the editorial traditions, and the Commentary explains in absorbing detail how and why the editor has set the text as he has. The world's foremost Varro scholar of this day has successfully combined classical philology and the history of linguistics to produce an inspired new edition and novel translation of book ten of Varro's magnum opus.
Marcus Terentius Varro (116-27 BC) was the greatest polymath of the Roman republic. During his lifetime he authored several hundred books, and though many of them dealt with linguistic topics, the De lingua Latina ('On the Latin language'), the first large-scale linguistic treatment of Latin, was by far his most significant work. Originally consisting of twenty-five volumes - one introductory, followed by six on etymology, six on morphology, and twelve on syntax - only books 5-10 treating etymology and morphology have come down to us in a more or less complete form, though a fair number of fragments of other volumes have been transmitted in other authors. The present volumes aim to provide a comprehensive treatment of this highly technical text in a new critical edition accompanied by a clear, accurate translation and full commentary. In Volume I, an introductory study outlines Varro's life and works, analysing his own linguistic usage and setting his insights about language in their historical and intellectual context. His etymology and morphology are contrasted with our own modern methods, yielding important and sometimes surprising insights into how an educated Roman looked at the history of his own language: although his etymology is, by current standards, pre-scientific, it is actually quite often in agreement with modern etymology, while his morphology also has much in common with a modern approach, focusing on the question of how regular language is and providing arguments against and in favour of regularity. Detailed discussions of these and other of Varro's linguistic ideas are brought to the fore in the exhaustive commentary in Volume II, which also sheds much needed light on the work's textual problems, cultural background, and distinctive Varronian style, and will be indispensible to scholars and students of both classics and linguistics.
Marcus Terentius Varro (116 27 B.C.) was one of the most prolific writers in antiquity. However, of his "De Lingua Latina" only six of 25 books have survived, and these are neither complete nor free of textual corruption. This study is an attempt to provide an adequate, consistent, and comprehensive account of the linguistic theory with which Varro operated insofar as it can be recovered from the remains of "De Lingua Latina."