Latin Alive Reader: Latin Literature from Cicero to Newton!
LA Team: Steven, Chris, Karen, and Gaylan at the book release during the national conference for the Society for Classical Learning in Austin, TX.
We are very excited to announce the publication of the fourth and final installment of the Latin Alive series! The Latin Reader is the fruition of the dream Gaylan and I shared for the series from its earliest beginning. It was our desire to create a series that would train students to read original Latin literature and then enjoy the fruits of such literature, not just from ancient Rome, but literature that reflects the great breadth and depth of Latin influence through the ages. This unique reader provides excerpts of Latin literature that includes the prose of Cicero, Caesar, and Bacon; the poetry of Vergil, Ovid, Queen Elizabeth and Milton; the theological treatises of Augustine, Luther, and Aquinas; and the scientific musings of Pliny and Newton. And these are only a few of the authors represented! So great is the content, that we are delighted to welcome Dr. Steven L. Jones as a third author for this special book. You can read more about Steven on the “about the authors” page of this blog site.
As with previous LA books we include biographies of each Latin author so students can learn about the context of each piece: historical, social, and even political. Footnotes abound which provide further insight to the language, idioms, and cultural references for each piece. We have also provided a variety of reading comprehension questions (Latin and English) to allow teachers to explore the readings further with students. For all intents and purposes, this book serves as the basis for a humanities class in Latin. For my students, this is their favorite Latin class.
Another distinctive unique to this book is the inclusion of a thorough grammar review in the second section. Teachers and students may use this to review aspects of Latin grammar that apply to the pieces of literature they are reading. Numerous appendices with reference charts, pronunciation review, and lessons in both Medieval Latin and poetry make this book on Latin literature complete. There truly is nothing like this in circulation to date. We are overjoyed to share this treasury with all of you.
You can read more about the Latin Alive Reader on the CAP website, including sample chapters. Here is a sneak peek at the wealth of literature contained within its pages. Among these you will see many of the authors and titles often included among the literature lists of classical schools. This is very intentional as it is our hope through this book to support and enhance the study of these pieces of literature.
- Pro Archaia, Cicero
- Cornelia Gracchi, Nepos
- De Bello Gallico, Caesar
- Tria Poemata, Catullus
- Aeneid, Vergil
- Quattuor Poemata, Horace
- Metamorphoses, Ovid
- Fabulae Breves, Phaedrus
- de Ira, Seneca
- Evangelium secundum Sanctum Lucum, St. Luke
- Evangelium sucundum Sanctum Mattheum, St. Matthew
- Naturalis Historia, Piny the Elder
- Institutio Oratio, Quintilian
- Alia Epigrammata, Martial
- Perigrinatio Egeriae, Egeria
- Confessiones Sancti Augustini, St. Augustine
- Confessiones Sancti Patricii, St. Patrick
- Institutiones Divinarum et Saecularium Litterarum, Cassiodorus
- Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum, Bede
- Vita de Caroli Magni, Einhard
- Magna Charta, The 25 Barons
- Summa Theologica, St. Aquinas
- Epistola ad Ciceronem, Petrarch
- Epistola Latina Columbi, Columbus
- Disputatio pro Declaratione Virtutis Indulgentiarum, Luther
- Stultitiae Laus, Erasmus
- Adversus Lutheranos, Cajetan
- Carmen et Oratio, Queen Elizabeth
- Elegia Secunda, Milton
- Historia Regni Henrici Septimi Angliae, Bacon
- Principa Mathematica, Newton
In addition, we have provided two readings included on the AP Latin syllabus from Caesar and Vergil.