Grammar, boring? No way!

In the Middle Ages, the teaching of Latin grammar and rhetoric was the cornerstone of a good education. Generations of young people were taught according to a tradition that dated from classical antiquity, but was subject to constant change. Ineke Sluiter has brought these textbooks together in a weighty volume.

Technical

Sluiter, Professor of Greek Language and Literature, compiled the work together with Rita Copeland, a specialist in Medieval Studies from the University of Pennsylvania. The Leiden classicists  have worked together with their colleagues from this institution for many years. The texts that they have collected, translated and explained in Medieval Grammar & Rhetoric are not generally available for study by Medieval specialists. 'The texts deal with 'technical' subjects and are mostly not well published,' Sluiter comments. 'You have to know where to find them.' The texts are 'technical' in the sense of the Greek téchnē, that, as well as meaning 'art' or 'competence', also means 'a manual'.  The Latin word is ars.

Deceptive

Nonetheless, knowledge of these texts is important for Medieval specialists: the authors they study have themseves been trained using these texts. And in the Middle Ages it was these grammarians and rhetoricians whose teaching determined who got to speak, who was considered to be cultured and who could play a role in the upper echelons of society. On the surface, it appears as if little changed during the Middle Ages. 'But that's deceptive,' Sluiter explains. 'The context had changed completely. In classical antiquity, people spoke Latin, and in the Middle Ages they had to learn the language if they wanted to attain a good position in society.'  

Image: Alcuin van York, Life of St. Fursa of Peronne, North-East France, third quarter of the ninth century, manuscript from the National Library of the Netherlands in The Hague. The easily legible hand, the Carolingian minuscule, with which the manuscript was written, was developed in part by Alcuin himself. The letter went out of use shortly after the work was completed, and was rediscovered at the start of the Renaissance and transformed into the humanistic minuscule that forms the basis of our printed typeface. 

Boring

Through their research, Sluiter and Copeland gained a view of the teaching practices of the Middle Ages. Sluiter: ‘The subjects that they taught had enormous symbolic value, but they were also regarded as boring, dry and tedious. The teachers were well aware of this and wanted to do something about it. An example of a writer who thought about pedagogy is Alcuin, the education minister of Charles the Great, who presents a grammar and rhetoric in dialogue form. The dialogue already existed in classical antiquity and worked as a kind of catechism: you can test a pupil using this method.' 

Humour

Unlike his predecessors, Alcuin in his Ars Grammatica does not assign the speaking parts to a teacher and a pupil, but to two students. Sluiter: ‘They are so keen to learn; the younger one, Franco, keeps on asking questions, and the older student, Saxo, provides the information. Alcuin also adds a touch of humour. Franco reproaches his fellow student for begrudging him knowledge when Saxo suggests taking a break.  They also show they can apply their knowledge. When interjections are being discussed, Acuin gets Saxo to call out: 'Whoa! Why are you asking me about interjections?' Franco also manages to throw in a quote from Virgil. The names of the boys are interesting, too. They are the names of the two groups constituting Charlemagne's empire; Alcuin is a Saxon and Charles a Frank.'

Politics

Alcuin applies the same dialogue in his Ars Rhetorica. 'Rhetoric is about the ornateand effective use of language,' says Sluiter. 'This has a political link. Alcuin's partner in the dialogue is Charles himself. That's also precarious, because he can hardly make him out to be a student. So he goes to great lengths to present the work as a co-production. Charles understands the problems and poses the right questions at the right time.'

Trying to impress

For all these centuries the grammar itself, the material that the students had to learn, remained the same. Yet all the teachers keep on trying to write their own grammar. Sluiter: 'They portray themselves as the guardiansof an intellectual domain. There are even grammars in poetry form, which is quite a task. It's not always because it makes it easier to remember.; sometimes it's blatantly obvious that this isn't the real reason. It is simply an attempt to impress: "Look how well I can present this material in a literary form".' 

An unconvincing hero

Another example is Tiberius Donatus, an orator who writes a commentary with an introduction to Virgil's Aeneid. 'Traditionally, poetry is part of the domain of the grammarian,' Sluiter explains. 'But according to this Donatus, the grammarians have no understanding of this work at all. The Aeneid is an encomium, it sings the praies of Augustus, through the hero Aeneas. Speeches of praise are the province of rhetoric, so that makes the Aeneid a work of rhetoric. And so we need an orator has to be used to explain the work. Virgil had a tough job because Aeneas is such an unconvincing hero. He hardly manages to do anything right and the gods are angry wth him. As a reader, you probably need help in understanding how Virgil managed to turn this material into a successful enterprise in praise. And this helpful explanation, of course, comes from Donatus himself.'

Image:  The cover shows two miniatures from circa 1200, originally from the abbey of Aldersbach and now in the Bavarian State Library in Munich. On the left is an allegorical image of Lady Grammar, flanked by Priscian, a Latin grammarian who lived around 500. To the right is Lady R(h)etoric with Tully (Cicero), a famous Roman orator, standing beside her. According to Sluiter, the way the figures are portrayed reflects their reputation: 'Grammar is holding a whip and she is so thin you can count her ribs, while Tulliy's pose is that of a sexy young man.'

Pagan

One problem for people in the Medieval Ages was the justification of the use of pagan knowledge. Sluiter: 'They put a lot of effort into showing that it is also a valid instrument within a Christian context. You are allowed to use any technical achievement from the paganworld. Augustine had already produced an excellent defence of this practice.' This church father who had a conclusive answer to all these questions, doesn't appear in the work by Sluiter and Copeland. 'He would obviously fit the book very well but his texts are already well known. What was important for us was to focus on the less well-known texts.'

Medieval Grammar and Rhetoric, Language Arts and Literary Theory, AD 300 -1475, Edited by Rita Copeland and Ineke Sluiter
Oxford University Press, ISBN: 978-0-19-818341-9, 972 pages, £95.00

(19 January 2010)