Wednesday, January 29, 2020

A Few Significant Latin Works

I do not claim that the works I mention in this post are the most significant works in the Latin language. As the decades roll by, I find lists of the most significant this or that to be less and less significant. The best such lists can be is interesting in some way, and hopefully some readers will find this post interesting.

The Vulgate Bible, or biblia sacra vulgata, is a Latin version of the Old and New Testament and some Old Testament apocrypha, made by St Jerome and some other, unknown individuals in the late 4th and early 5th centuries from Hebrew, Greek and earlier Latin sources.


It was the primary version of the Bible used by the Catholic Church until the 20th century, and it also happens to be quite beautifully written. Some have thought that the term "Vulgate" means that the Latin style of this version of the bible is somehow vulgar, but this is an error; "Vulgate" simply refers to the fact that it has been translated into Latin.

Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, or The Ecclesiastical History of the English People, is a history of England written around 730 by the writer known as the Venerable Bede. Bede wrote on a great many subjects, but his history is by far the best-known, most widely-read of his works. It covers the history of England from Caesar' invasion in 55 BC to Bede's own day. Historians of England generally agree that their profession began with Bede, and that his history is one of the great works of Dark Age Western Europe. Writing in the 12th century, William of Malmesbury, considered by many to be one of the very best Medieval historians in Europe, not just in England, said that he considered his work to be a continuation of Bede's history, and expressed the hope that he might be a not wholly unworthy successor.

Remaining in England: Magna Carta is highly revered by many English people as the core of their legal system, and indeed many of the principles of English law such as the right to trial by jury, and the principle that all, including the English monarch, are answerable to the law, were first formally expressed in writing in this document. It was first written in 1215, and at first it failed at what it was intended to do. Magna Carta was written in an attempt to end a war between King John and the barons of England. It did not end that war, and it was immediately declared invalid by the Pope. However, revised versions were written beginning in 1217 and continue to be written to this day, and, if not a direct source of contemporary principles of jurisprudence, it continues to be a powerful symbol of the rule of law and of justice fairly meted out, in the United States as well as in the United Kingdom. It seems rather important to some historians to refer to the document in the linguistically correct Latin version as "Magna Carta" rather than in the often-heard phrase "the Magna Carta," so I'm following their preference and mentioning it.

De Insulis Indiae supra Gangem nuper inventis, Of the Islands of India Beyond the Ganges Newly Discovered, is one of several titles which refer to the Latin translation of the letter written in Spanish reporting on Christopher Columbus' first transatlantic voyage to Isabelle of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon. The author of the letter claims to be Columbus himself, writing on the return trip to Spain in February 1493. Leander de Cosco notes in the introduction to the translation that he finished it on the 29th of April, 1493. Already in May 1493 the first edition of the Latin translation had been published in Rome. 6 more editions were printed in Rome, Basel, Paris and Antwerp before the end of 1493.

PhilosophiƦ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, was written by Isaac Newton, and first published in 1687. Newton published revised editions in 1713 and 1726. In this work Newton expounded the principles of what is still called Newtonian physics, and still used in all sorts of practical applications up to and including space flight. The Apollo 8 mission orbited the moon, and on its return to Earth mission control passed on a child's question, "Who's driving the spaceship now?" to mission pilot William Anders, who famously replied, “I think Isaac Newton is doing most of the driving now.”

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