Who said learning Latin is dull?
This semester, UWM Latin instructor Deanna Wesolowski’s classes have been focusing on reading medieval Latin texts. Today she brought two of her classes, composed of beginning and 2nd-year students, to Special Collections to view examples from our extensive facsimile collection of manuscript books originally produced from the late 7th to the mid 15th centuries. The goal was to view and attempt to read a range of Latin texts in a long temporal span of paleographic hands, with their various ligatures and abbreviation conventions, and to discuss how reading Latin was transformed by the 13th century through the gradual introduction of standardized word order, spaces between words, punctuation, enlarged initial capitals, and the use of the Carolingian minuscule.
We were a bit surprised, but absolutely delighted with the level of enthusiasm the students brought to their engagement with the texts, and with the many great questions and comments they formulated. For these students at least, learning Latin is certainly not dull!
Click on the images to find out what they’re reading.
View other Special Collections instructions sessions from this semester.