Latin Philology of the Middle Ages and the Modern Era Studying Medieval Latin

Medieval Latin philology teaches and investigates Latin script, language, and literature from Late Antiquity through the late Middle Ages (IVth to XVth centuries). The discipline's core consists of reading, understanding, and evaluating Latin textual witnesses; it is thus both philology and media studies. Since the subject was established, a fourfold division has emerged and become integral to teaching: palaeography, literary and linguistic history, and history of transmission.

In palaeography, the history of Latin script and manuscript studies from Roman Antiquity onward are taught. The objectives are the identification, dating, localization, and reading of manuscripts (as well as inscriptions and printed works). Research and teaching in literary history proceed partly according to traditional concepts (literary periods, genre history, author and work), but also with consideration of the pronounced intertextuality of Medieval Latin literature, the character of transmission centres and literary landscapes, the particularities of the educational system, and the relevance of manuscript evidence in reconstructing conditions of production. Continuities and ruptures in Latin linguistic development since Late Antiquity constitute the subject matter of linguistic history. Beyond knowledge of these developmental trajectories, the goal is proficiency in classifying texts according to linguistic and formal criteria. Topics include the formation of Christian specialized language, the recording of Vulgar Latin in writing, awareness of bilingualism, linguistic deviations according to educational level and vernacular background, the liberation of word-formation possibilities, and linguistic correction in the “Renaissances.” A traditional focus of linguistic history is the development of poetic forms. The subfield of transmission history encompasses manuscript and scholastic transmission of ancient or late antique authors and text collections. It determines how transmission pathways, commentary, and mediation in schools have preserved and altered a text, and on what foundation modern editions rest.