Chapter XIV: Part 14

The classical learning of the middle ages was largely second-hand. It was often derived from glossaries, from books of elegant extracts, or from comprehensive encyclopaedias. Among the compilers of these last were Isidore and Hrabanus, William of Conches and Honorius of Autun, Bartholomaeus Anglicus (fl. 1250), Vincent of Beauvais (d. 1264), and, lastly, Brunetto Latini (d. 1290), the earlier contemporary of Dante. For Aristotle, as interpreted by Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas, Dante has the highest regard. To the Latin translations of Aristotle and to his interpreters he refers in more than three hundred passages, while the number of his references to the Latin translation of the _Timaeus_ of Plato is less than ten. His five great pagan poets are Homer, Virgil, Horace, Ovid, Lucan; Statius he regards as a "Christian" converted by Virgil's _Fourth Eclogue_. His standard authors in Latin prose are Cicero, Livy, Pliny, Frontinus and Orosius. His knowledge of Greek was practically nil. Latin was the language of his political treatise, _De Monarchia_, and even that of his defence of the vulgar tongue, _De Vulgari Eloquio_. He is, in a limited sense, a precursor of the Renaissance, but he is far more truly to be regarded as the crowning representative of the spirit of the middle ages.

Italy.

(iv.) _The Modern Age._--(a) Our fourth period is ushered in by the age of the Revival of Learning in Italy (c. 1350-1527). Petrarch (1304-1374) has been well described as "the first of modern men." In contrast with the Schoolmen of the middle ages, he has no partiality for Aristotle. He was interested in Greek, and, a full century before the fall of Constantinople, he was in possession of MSS. of Homer and Plato, though his knowledge of the language was limited to the barest rudiments. For that knowledge, scanty as it was, he was indebted to Leontius Pilatus, with whose aid Boccaccio (1313-1375) became "the first of modern men" to study Greek to some purpose during the three years that Leontius spent as his guest in Florence (1360-1363). It was also at Florence that Greek was taught in the next generation by Chrysoloras (in 1396-1400). Another generation passed, and the scholars of the East and West met at the council of Florence (1439). One of the envoys of the Greeks, Gemistus Pletho, then inspired Cosimo dei Medici with the thought of founding an academy for the study of Plato. The academy was founded, and, in the age of Lorenzo, Plato and Plotinus were translated into Latin by Marsilio Ficino (d. 1499). The _Apology_ and _Crito_, the _Phaedo, Phaedrus_ and _Gorgias_ of Plato, as well as speeches of Demosthenes and Aeschines, with the _Oeconomics, Ethics_ and _Politics_ of Aristotle, had already been translated by Leonardo Bruni (d. 1444); the _Rhetoric_ by Filelfo (1430), and Plato's _Republic_ by Decembrio (1439). A comprehensive scheme for translating the principal Greek prose authors into Latin was carried out at Rome by the founder of the manuscript collections of the Vatican, Nicholas V. (1447-1455), who had belonged to the literary circle of Cosimo at Florence. The translation of Aristotle was entrusted to three of the learned Greeks who had already arrived in Italy, Trapezuntius, Gaza and Bessarion, while other authors were undertaken by Italian scholars such as Guarino, Valla, Decembrio and Perotti. Among the scholars of Italian birth, probably the only one in this age who rivalled the Greeks as a public expositor of their own literature was Politian (1454-1494), who lectured on Homer and Aristotle in Florence, translated Herodian, and was specially interested in the Latin authors of the Silver Age and in the text of the _Pandects_ of Justinian. It will be observed that the study of Greek had been resumed in Florence half a century before the fall of Constantinople, and that the principal writers of Greek prose had been translated into Latin before that event.

Meanwhile, the quest of MSS. of the Latin classics had been actively pursued. Petrarch had discovered Cicero's Speech _pro Archia_ at Liege (1333) and the _Letters to Atticus_ and _Quintus_ at Verona (1345). Boccaccio had discovered Martial and Ausonius, and had been the first of the humanists to be familiar with Varro and Tacitus, while Salutati had recovered Cicero's letters _Ad Familiares_ (1389). During the council of Constance, Poggio, the papal secretary, spent in the quest of MSS. the interval between May 1415 and November 1417, during which he was left at leisure by the vacancy in the apostolic see.

Thirteen of Cicero's speeches were found by him at Cluny and Langres, and elsewhere in France or Germany; the commentary of Asconius, a complete Quintilian, and a large part of Valerius Flaccus were discovered at St Gallen. A second expedition to that monastery and to others in the neighbourhood led to the recovery of Lucretius, Manilius, Silius Italicus and Ammianus Marcellinus, while the _Silvae_ of Statius were recovered shortly afterwards. A complete MS. of Cicero, _De Oratore_, _Brutus_ and _Orator_, was found by Bishop Landriani at Lodi (1421). Cornelius Nepos was discovered by Traversari in Padua (1434). The _Agricola_, _Germania_ and _Dialogue_ of Tacitus reached Italy from Germany in 1455, and the early books of the _Annals_ in 1508. Pliny's _Panegyric_ was discovered by Aurispa at Mainz (1433), and his correspondence with Trajan by Fra Giocondo in Paris about 1500.

Greek MSS. were brought from the East by Aurispa, who in 1423 returned with no less than two hundred and thirty-eight, including the celebrated Laurentian MS. of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Apollonius Rhodius. A smaller number was brought from Constantinople by Filelfo (1427), while Quintus Smyrnaeus was discovered in south Italy by Bessarion, who presented his own collection of MSS. to the republic of Venice and thus led to the foundation of the library of St Mark's (1468). As the emissary of Lorenzo, Janus Lascaris paid two visits to the East, returning from his second visit in 1492 with two hundred MSS. from Mount Athos.

The Renaissance theory of a humanistic education is illustrated by several treatises still extant. In 1392 Vergerio addressed to a prince of Padua the first treatise which methodically maintains the claims of Latin as an essential part of a liberal education. Eight years later, he was learning Greek from Chrysoloras. Among the most distinguished pupils of the latter was Leonardo Bruni, who, about 1405, wrote "the earliest humanistic tract on education expressly addressed to a lady." He here urges that the foundation of all true learning is a "sound and thorough knowledge of Latin," and draws up a course of reading, in which history is represented by Livy, Sallust, Curtius, and Caesar; oratory by Cicero; and poetry by Virgil. The same year saw the birth of Maffeo Vegio, whose early reverence for the muse of Virgil and whose later devotion to the memory of Monica have left their mark on the educational treatise which he wrote a few years before his death in 1458. The authors he recommends include "Aesop" and Sallust, the tragedies of Seneca and the epic poets, especially Virgil, whom he interprets in an allegorical sense. He is in favour of an early simultaneous study of a wide variety of subjects, to be followed later by the special study of one or two. Eight years before the death of Vegio, Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini (Pius II.) had composed a brief treatise on education in the form of a letter to Ladislaus, the young king of Bohemia and Hungary. The Latin poets to be studied include Virgil, Lucan, Statius, Ovid's _Metamorphoses_, and (with certain limitations) Horace, Juvenal and Persius, as well as Plautus, Terence and the tragedies of Seneca; the prose authors recommended are Cicero, Livy and Sallust. The first great school of the Renaissance was that established by Vittorino da Feltre at Mantua, where he resided for the last twenty-two years of his life (1424-1446). Among the Latin authors studied were Virgil and Lucan, with selections from Horace, Ovid and Juvenal, besides Cicero and Quintilian, Sallust and Curtius, Caesar and Livy. The Greek authors were Homer, Hesiod, Pindar and the dramatists, with Herodotus, Xenophon and Plato, Isocrates and Demosthenes, Plutarch and Arrian.

Meanwhile, Guarino had been devoting five years to the training of the eldest son of the marquis of Ferrara. At Ferrara he spent the last thirty years of his long life (1370-1460), producing text-books of Greek and Latin grammar, and translations from Strabo and Plutarch. His method may be gathered from his son's treatise, _De Ordine Docendi et Studendi_. In that treatise the essential marks of an educated person are, not only ability to write Latin verse, but also, a point of "at least equal importance," "familiarity with the language and literature of Greece." "Without a knowledge of Greek, Latin scholarship itself is, in any real sense, impossible" (1459).

By the fall of Constantinople in 1453, "Italy (in the eloquent phrase of Carducci) became sole heir and guardian of the ancient civilization," but its fall was in no way necessary for the revival of learning, which had begun a century before. Bessarion, Theodorus Gaza, Georgius Trepezuntius, Argyropulus, Chalcondyles, all had reached Italy before 1453. A few more Greeks fled to Italy after that date, and among these were Janus Lascaris, Musurus and Callierges. All three were of signal service in devoting their knowledge of Greek to perpetuating and popularizing the Greek classics with the aid of the newly-invented art of printing. That art had been introduced into Italy by the German printers, Sweynheym and Pannartz, who had worked under Fust at Mainz. At Subiaco and at Rome they had produced in 1465-1471 the earliest editions of Cicero, _De Oratore_ and the _Letters_, and eight other Latin authors.

The printing of Greek began at Milan with the Greek grammar of Constantine Lascaris (1476). At Florence the earliest editions of Homer (1488) and Isocrates (1493) had been produced by Demetrius Chalcondyles, while Janus Lascaris was the first to edit the Greek anthology, Apollonius Rhodius, and parts of Euripides, Callimachus and Lucian (1494-1496). In 1494-1515 Aldus Manutius published at Venice no less than twenty-seven _editiones principes_ of Greek authors and of Greek works of reference, the authors including Aristotle, Theophrastus, Theocritus, Aristophanes, Thucydides, Sophocles, Herodotus, Euripides, Demosthenes (and the minor Attic orators), Pindar, Plato and Athenaeus. In producing Plato, Athenaeus and Aristophanes, the scholar-printer was largely aided by Musurus, who also edited the Aldine Pausanias (1516) and the _Etymologicum_ printed in Venice by another Greek immigrant, Callierges (1499).

The Revival of Learning in Italy ends with the sack of Rome (1527). Before 1525 the study of Greek had begun to decline in Italy, but meanwhile an interest in that language had been transmitted to the lands beyond the Alps.

In the study of Latin the principal aim of the Italian humanists was the _imitation_ of the style of their classical models. In the case of poetry, this imitative spirit is apparent in Petrarch's _Africa_, and in the Latin poems of Politian, Pontano, Sannazaro, Vida and many others. Petrarch was not only the imitator of Virgil, who had been the leading name in Latin letters throughout the middle ages; it was the influence of Petrarch that gave a new prominence to Cicero. The imitation of Cicero was carried on with varying degrees of success by humanists such as Gasparino da Barzizza (d. 1431), who introduced a new style of epistolary Latin; by Paolo Cortesi, who discovered the importance of a rhythmical structure in the composition of Ciceronian prose (1490); and by the accomplished secretaries of Leo X., Bembo and Sadoleto. Both of these papal secretaries were mentioned in complimentary terms by Erasmus in his celebrated dialogue, the _Ciceronianus_ (1528), in which no less than one hundred and six Ciceronian scholars of all nations are briefly and brilliantly reviewed, the slavish imitation of Cicero denounced, and the law laid down that "to speak with propriety we must adapt ourselves to the age in which we live--an age that differs entirely from that of Cicero." One of the younger Ciceronians criticized by Erasmus was Longolius, who had died at Padua in 1522. The cause of the Ciceronians was defended by the elder Scaliger in 1531 and 1536, and by Etienne Dolet in 1535, and the controversy was continued by other scholars down to the year 1610. Meanwhile, in Italy, a strict type of Ciceronianism was represented by Paulus Manutius (d. 1574), and a freer and more original form of Latinity by Muretus (d. 1585).

Before touching on the salient points in the subsequent centuries, in connexion with the leading nations of Europe, we may briefly note the cosmopolitan position of Erasmus (1466-1536), who, although he was a native of the Netherlands, was far more closely connected with France, England, Italy, Germany and Switzerland, than with the land of his birth. He was still a school-boy at Deventer when his high promise was recognized by Rudolf Agricola, "the first (says Erasmus) who brought from Italy some breath of a better culture." Late in 1499 Erasmus spent some two months at Oxford, where he met Colet; it was in London that he met More and Linacre and Grocyn, who had already ceased to lecture at Oxford. At Paris, in 1500, he was fully conscious that "without Greek the amplest knowledge of Latin was imperfect"; and, during his three years in Italy (1506-1509), he worked quietly at Greek in Bologna and attended the lectures of Musurus in Padua. In October 1511 he was teaching Greek to a little band of students in Cambridge; at Basel in 1516 he produced his edition of the Greek Testament, the first that was actually published; and during the next few years he was helping to organize the college lately founded at Louvain for the study of Greek and Hebrew, as well as Latin. Seven years at Basel were followed by five at Freiburg, and by two more at Basel, where he died. The names of all these places are suggestive of the wide range of his influence. By his published works, his _Colloquies_, his _Adages_ and his _Apophthegms_, he was the educator of the nations of Europe. An educational aim is also apparent in his editions of Terence and of Seneca, while his Latin translations made his contemporaries more familiar with Greek poetry and prose, and his _Paraphrase_ promoted a better understanding of the Greek Testament. He was not so much a scientific scholar as a keen and brilliant man of letters and a widely influential apostle of humanism.

France.

Germany.

In France the most effective of the early teachers of Greek was Janus Lascaris (1495-1503). Among his occasional pupils was Budaeus (d. 1540), who prompted Francis I. to found in 1530 the corporation of the Royal Readers in Greek, as well as Latin and Hebrew, afterwards famous under the name of the College de France. In the study of Greek one of the earliest links between Italy and Germany was Rudolf Agricola, who had learned Greek under Gaza at Ferrara. It was in Paris that his younger contemporary Reuchlin acquired part of that proficiency in Greek which attracted the notice of Argyropulus, whose admiration of Reuchlin is twice recorded by Melanchthon, who soon afterwards was pre-eminent as the "praeceptor" of Germany.

England.

In the age of the revival the first Englishman who studied Greek was a Benedictine monk, William of Selling (d. 1494), who paid two visits to Italy. At Canterbury he inspired with his own love of learning his nephew, Linacre, who joined him on one of those visits, studied Greek at Florence under Politian and Chalcondyles, and apparently stayed in Italy from 1485 to 1499. His translation of a treatise of Galen was printed at Cambridge in 1521 by Siberch, who, in the same year and place, was the first to use Greek type in England. Greek had been first taught to some purpose at Oxford by Grocyn on his return from Italy in 1491. One of the younger scholars of the day was William Lilye, who picked up his Greek at Rhodes on his way to Palestine and became the first high-master of the school founded by Colet at St Paul's (1510).

(b) That part of the _Modern Period_ of classical studies which succeeds the age of the Revival in Italy may be subdivided into three periods distinguished by the names of the nations most prominent in each.

The French period.

1. The first may be designated the _French_ period. It begins with the foundation of the Royal Readers by Francis I. in 1530, and it may perhaps be regarded as extending to 1700. This period is marked by a many-sided _erudition_ rather than by any special cult of the _form_ of the classical languages. It is the period of the great polyhistors of France. It includes Budaeus and the elder Scaliger (who settled in France in 1529), with Turnebus and Lambinus, and the learned printers Robertus and Henricus Stephanus, while among its foremost names are those of the younger (and greater) Scaliger, Casaubon and Salmasius. Of these, Casaubon ended his days in England (1614); Scaliger, by leaving France for the Netherlands in 1593, for a time at least transferred the supremacy in scholarship from the land of his birth to that of his adoption. The last sixteen years of his life (1593-1609) were spent at Leiden, which was also for more than twenty years (1631-1653) the home of Salmasius, and for thirteen (1579-1592) that of Lipsius (d. 1606). In the 17th century the erudition of France is best represented by "Henricus Valesius," Du Cange and Mabillon. In the same period Italy was represented by Muretus, who had left France in 1563, and by her own sons, Nizolius, Victorius, Robortelli and Sigonius, followed in the 17th century by R. Fabretti. The Netherlands, in the 16th, claim W. Canter as well as Lipsius, and, in the 17th, G.J. Vossius, Johannes Meursius, the elder and younger Heinsius, Hugo Grotius, J.F. Gronovius, J.G. Graevius and J. Perizonius. Scotland, in the 16th, is represented by George Buchanan; England by Sir John Cheke, Roger Ascham, and Sir Henry Savile, and, in the 17th, by Thomas Gataker, Thomas Stanley, Henry Dodwell, and Joshua Barnes; Germany by Janus Gruter, Ezechiel Spanheim and Chr. Cellarius, the first two of whom were also connected with other countries.

Literary Latin.

We have already seen that a strict imitation of Cicero was one of the characteristics of the Italian humanists. In and after the middle of the 16th century a correct and pure Latinity was promoted by the educational system of the Jesuits; but with the growth of the vernacular literatures Latin became more and more exclusively the language of the learned. Among the most conspicuous Latin writers of the 17th century are G.J. Vossius and the Heinsii, with Salmasius and his great adversary, Milton. Latin was also used in works on science and philosophy, such as Sir Isaac Newton's _Principia_ (1687), and many of the works of Leibnitz (1646-1705). In botany the custom followed by John Ray (1627-1705) in his _Historia Plantarum_ and in other works was continued in 1760 by Linnaeus in his _Systema Naturae_. The last important work in English theology written in Latin was George Bull's _Defensio Fidei Nicenae_ (1685). The use of Latin in diplomacy died out towards the end of the 17th century; but, long after that date negotiations with the German empire were conducted in Latin, and Latin was the language of the debates in the Hungarian diet down to 1825.

The English and Dutch period.

2. During the 18th century the classical scholarship of the Netherlands was under the healthy and stimulating influence of Bentley (1662-1742), who marks the beginning of the English and Dutch period, mainly represented in Holland by Bentley's younger contemporary and correspondent, Tiberius Hemsterhuys (1685-1766), and the latter scholar's great pupil David Ruhnken (1723-1798). It is the age of historical and literary, as well as verbal, criticism. Both of these were ably represented in the first half of the century by Bentley himself, while, in the twenty years between 1782 and 1803, the verbal criticism of the tragic poets of Athens was the peculiar province of Richard Porson (1759-1808), who was born in the same year as F.A. Wolf. Among other representatives of England were Jeremiah Markland and Jonathan Toup, Thomas Tyrwhitt and Thomas Twining, Samuel Parr and Sir William Jones; and of the Netherlands, the two Burmanns and L. Kuester, Arnold Drakenborch and Wesseling, Lodewyk Valckenaer and Daniel Wyttenbach (1746-1829). Germany is represented by Fabricius and J.M. Gesner, J.A. Ernesti and J.J. Reiske, J.J. Winckelmann and Chr. G. Heyne; France by B. de Montfaucon and J.B.G.D. Villoison; Alsace by French subjects of German origin, R.F.P. Brunck and J. Schweighaeuser; and Italy by E. Forcellini and Ed. Corsini.

The German period.

3. The _German_ period begins with F.A. Wolf (1759-1824), whose _Prolegomena_ to Homer appeared in 1795. He is the founder of the systematic and encyclopaedic type of scholarship embodied in the comprehensive term _Altertumswissenschaft_, or "a scientific knowledge of the old classical world." The tradition of Wolf was ably continued by August Boeckh (d. 1867), one of the leaders of the historical and antiquarian school, brilliantly represented in the previous generation by B.G. Niebuhr (d. 1831).

In contrast with this school we have the critical and grammatical school of Gottfried Hermann (d. 1848). During this period, while Germany remains the most productive of the nations, scholarship has been more and more international and cosmopolitan in its character.

Germany.

_19th Century._--We must here be content with simply recording the names of a few of the more prominent representatives of the 19th century in some of the most obvious departments of classical learning. Among natives of Germany the leading scholars have been, in _Greek_, C.F.W. Jacobs, C.A. Lobeck, L. Dissen, I. Bekker, A. Meineke, C. Lehrs, W. Dindorf, T. Bergk, F.W. Schneidewin, H. Koechly, A. Nauck, H. Usener, G. Kaibel, F. Blass and W. Christ; in _Latin_, C. Lachmann, F. Ritschl, M. Haupt, C. Halm, M. Hertz, A. Fleckeisen, E. Baehrens, L. Mueller and O. Ribbeck. _Grammar_ and kindred subjects have been represented by P. Buttmann, A. Matthiae, F.W. Thiersch, C.G. Zumpt, G. Bernhardy, C.W. Krueger, R. Kuehner and H.L. Ahrens; and _lexicography_ by F. Passow and C.E. Georges. Among editors of _Thucydides_ we have had E.F. Poppo and J. Classen; among editors of _Demosthenes or other orators_, G.H. Schaefer, J.T. Voemel, G.E. Benseler, A. Westermann, G.F. Schoemann, H. Sauppe, and C. Rehdantz (besides Blass, already mentioned). The _Platonists_ include F. Schleiermacher, G.A.F. Ast, G. Stallbaum and the many-sided C.F. Hermann; the _Aristotelians_, C.A. Brandis, A. Trendelenburg, L. Spengel, H. Bonitz, C. Prantl, J. Bernays and F. Susemihl. The history of _Greek philosophy_ was written by F. Ueberweg, and, more fully, by E. Zeller. _Greek history_ was the domain of G. Droysen, Max Duncker, Ernst Curtius, Arnold Schaefer and Adolf Holm; _Greek antiquities_ that of M.H. Meier and G.F. Schoemann and of G. Gilbert; _Greek epigraphy_ that of J. Franz, A. Kirchhoff, W. von Hartel, U. Koehler, G. Hirschfeld and W. Dittenberger; _Roman history and constitutional antiquities_ that of Theodor Mommsen (1817-1903), who was associated in _Latin epigraphy_ with E. Huebner and W. Henzen. _Classical art and archaeology_ were represented by F.G. Welcker, E. Gerhard, C.O. Mueller, F. Wieseler, O. Jahn, C.L. Urlichs, H. Brunn, C.B. Stark, J. Overbeck, W. Helbig, O. Benndorf and A. Furtwaengler; _mythology_ (with cognate subjects) by G.F. Creuzer, P.W. Forchhammer, L. Preller, A. Kuhn, J.W. Mannhardt and E. Rohde; and _comparative philology_ by F. Bopp, A.F. Pott, T. Benfey, W. Corssen, Georg Curtius, A. Schleicher and H. Steinthal. The history of _classical philology_ in Germany was written by Conrad Bursian (1830-1883).

France,

Belgium, Holland,

England.

In France we have J.F. Boissonade, J.A. Letronne, L.M. Quicherat, M.P. Littre, B. Saint-Hilaire, J.V. Duruy, B.E. Miller, E. Egger, C.V. Daremberg, C. Thurot, L.E. Benoist, O. Riemann and C. Graux; (in archaeology) A.C. Quatremere de Quincy, P. le Bas, C.F.M. Texier, the duc de Luynes, the Lenormants (C. and F.), W.H. Waddington and O. Rayet; and (in comparative philology) Victor Henry. Greece was ably represented in France by A. Koraes. In Belgium we have P. Willems and the Baron De Witte (long resident in France); in Holland, C.G. Cobet; in Denmark, J.N. Madvig. Among the scholars of Great Britain and Ireland may be mentioned: P. Elmsley, S. Butler, T. Gaisford, P.P. Dobree, J.H. Monk, C.J. Blomfield, W. Veitch, T.H. Key, B.H. Kennedy, W. Ramsay, T.W. Peile, R. Shilleto, W.H. Thompson, J.W. Donaldson, Robert Scott, H.G. Liddell, C. Badham, G. Rawlinson, F.A. Paley, B. Jowett, T.S. Evans, E.M. Cope, H.A.J. Munro, W.G. Clark, Churchill Babington, H.A. Holden, J. Riddell, J. Conington, W.Y. Sellar, A. Grant, W.D. Geddes, D.B. Monro, H. Nettleship, A. Palmer, R.C. Jebb, A.S. Wilkins, W.G. Rutherford and James Adam; among historians and archaeologists, W.M. Leake, H. Fynes-Clinton, G. Grote and C. Thirlwall, T. Arnold, G. Long and Charles Merivale, Sir Henry Maine, Sir Charles Newton and A.S. Murray, Robert Burn and H.F. Pelham. Among comparative philologists Max Mueller belonged to Germany by birth and to England by adoption, while, in the United States, his ablest counterpart was W.D. Whitney. B.L. Gildersleeve, W.W. Goodwin, Henry Drisler, J.B. Greenough and G.M. Lane were prominent American classical scholars.

Schools of Rome and Athens.

The 19th century in Germany was marked by the organization of the great series of Greek and Latin inscriptions, and by the foundation of the Archaeological Institute in Rome (1829), which was at first international in its character. The Athenian Institute was founded in 1874. Schools at Athens and Rome were founded by France in 1846 and 1873, by the United States of America in 1882 and 1895, and by England in 1883 and 1901; and periodicals are published by the schools of all these four nations. An interest in Greek studies (and especially in art and archaeology) has been maintained in England by the Hellenic Society, founded in 1879, with its organ the _Journal of Hellenic Studies_. A further interest in Greek archaeology has been awakened in all civilized lands by the excavations of Troy, Mycenae, Tiryns, Epidaurus, Sparta, Olympia, Dodona, Delphi, Delos and of important sites in Crete. The extensive discoveries of papyri in Egypt have greatly extended our knowledge of the administration of that country in the times of the Ptolemies, and have materially added to the existing remains of Greek literature. Scholars have been enabled to realize in their own experience some of the enthusiasm that attended the recovery of lost classics during the Revival of Learning. They have found themselves living in a new age of _editiones principes_, and have eagerly welcomed the first publication of Aristotle's _Constitution of Athens_ (1891), Herondas (1891) and Bacchylides (1897), as well as the _Persae_ of Timotheus of Miletus (1903), with some of the _Paeans_ of Pindar (1907) and large portions of the plays of Menander (1898-1899 and 1907). The first four of these were first edited by F.G. Kenyon, Timotheus by von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Menander partly by J. Nicole and G. Lefebre and partly by B.P. Grenfell and A.S. Hunt, who have also produced fragments of the _Paeans_ of Pindar and many other classic texts (including a Greek continuation of Thucydides and a Latin epitome of part of Livy) in the successive volumes of the _Oxyrhynchus papyri_ and other kindred publications.

AUTHORITIES.--For a full bibliography of the history of classical
philology, see E. Huebner, _Grundriss zu Vorlesungen ueber die
Geschichte und Encyklopaedie der klassischen Philologie_ (2nd ed.,
1889); and for a brief outline, C.L. Urlichs in Iwan von Mueller's
_Handbuch_, vol. i. (2nd ed., 1891). 33-145; S. Reinach, _Manuel de
philologie classique_ (2nd ed., 1883-1884; _nouveau tirage_ 1907),
1-22; and A. Gudemann, _Grundris_ (Leipzig, 1907), pp. 224 seq. For
the Alexandrian period, F. Susemihl, _Gesch. der griechischen
Litteratur in der Alexandrinerzeit_ (2 vols., 1891-1892); cf. F.A.
Eckstein, _Nomenclator Philologorum_ (1871), and W. Poekel,
_Philologisches Schriftsteller-Lexikon_ (1882). For the period ending
A.D. 400, see A. Graefenhan, _Gesch. der klass. Philologie_ (4 vols.,
1843-1850); for the Byzantine period, C. Krumbacher in Iwan von
Mueller, vol. ix. (1) (2nd ed., 1897); for the Renaissance, G. Voigt,
_Die Wiederbelebung des class. Altertums_ (3rd ed., 1894, with
bibliography); L. Geiger, _Renaissance und Humanismus in Italien und
Deutschland_ (1882, with bibliography); J.A. Symonds, _Revival of
Learning_ (1877, &c.); R.C. Jebb, in _Cambridge Modern History_, i.
(1902), 532-584; and J.E. Sandys, _Harvard Lectures on the Revival of
Learning_ (1905); also P. de Nolhac, _Petrarque et l'humanisme_ (2nd
ed., 1907). On the history of Greek scholarship in France, E. Egger,
_L'Histoire d'hellenisme en France_ (1869); Mark Pattison, _Essays_,
i., and _Life of Casaubon_; in Germany, C. Bursian, _Gesch. der class.
Philologie in Deutschland_ (1883); in Holland, L. Mueller, _Gesch. der
class. Philologie in den Niederlanden_ (1869); in Belgium, L.C.
Roersch in E.P. van Bemmel's _Patria Belgica_, vol. iii. (1875),
407-432; and in England, R.C. Jebb, "Erasmus" (1890) and "Bentley"
(1882), and "Porson" (in _Dict. Nat. Biog._). On the subject as a
whole see J.E. Sandys, _History of Classical Scholarship_ (with
chronological tables, portraits and facsimiles), vol. i.; _From the
Sixth Century B.C. to the end of the Middle Ages_ (1903, 2nd ed.,
1906); vols. ii. and iii., _From the Revival of Learning to the
Present Day_ (1908), including the history of scholarship in all the
countries of Europe and in the United States of America. See also the
separate biographical articles in this Encyclopaedia.

(B) THE STUDY OF THE CLASSICS IN SECONDARY EDUCATION

After the Revival of Learning the study of the classics owed much to the influence and example of Vittorino da Feltre, Budacus, Erasmus and Melanchthon, who were among the leading representatives of that revival in Italy, France, England and Germany.

England.

1. In _England_, the two great schools of Winchester (1382) and Eton (1440) had been founded during the life of Vittorino, but before the revival had reached Britain. The first school[2] which came into being under the immediate influence of humanism was that founded at St Paul's by Dean Colet (1510), the friend of Erasmus, whose treatise _De pueris instituendis_ (1529) has its English counterpart in the _Governor_ of Sir Thomas Elyot (1531). The highmaster of St Paul's was to be "learned in good and clean Latin, and also in Greek, if such may be gotten." The master and the second master of Shrewsbury (founded 1551) were to be "well able to make a Latin verse, and learned in the Greek tongue." The influence of the revival extended to many other schools, such as Christ's Hospital (1552), Westminster (1560), and Merchant Taylors' (1561); Repton (1557), Rugby (1567) and Harrow (1571).

Shakespeare and the grammar-school.

Early text-books.

At the grammar school of Stratford-on-Avon, about 1571-1577, Shakespeare presumably studied Terence, Horace, Ovid and the _Bucolics_ of Baptista Mantuanus (1502). In the early plays he quotes Ovid and Seneca. Similarly, in _Titus Andronicus_ (iv. 2) he says, of _Integer vitae_: "'Tis a verse in Horace; I know it well: I read it in the grammar long ago." In _Henry VI._ part ii. sc. 7, when Jack Cade charges Lord Say with having "most traitorously corrupted the youth of the realm in erecting a grammar-school," Lord Say replies that "ignorance is the curse of God, knowledge the wing wherewith we fly to heaven." In the _Taming of the Shrew_ (I. i. 157) a line is quoted as from Terence (_Andria_, 74): "_redime te captum quam queas minimo._" This is taken _verbatim_ from Lilye's contribution to the _Brevis Institutio_, originally composed by Colet, Erasmus and Lilye for St Paul's School (1527), and ultimately adopted as the _Eton Latin Grammar_. The _Westminster Greek Grammar_ of Grant (1575) was succeeded by that of Camden (1595), founded mainly on a Paduan text-book, and apparently adopted in 1596 by Sir Henry Savile at Eton, where it long remained in use as the _Eton Greek Grammar_, while at Westminster itself it was superseded by that of Busby (1663). The text-books to be used at Harrow in 1590 included Hesiod and some of the Greek orators and historians.

Ascham.

In one of the _Paston Letters_ (i. 301), an Eton boy of 1468 quotes two Latin verses of his own composition. Nearly a century later, on New Year's Day, 1560, forty-four boys of the school presented Latin verses to Queen Elizabeth. The queen's former tutor, Roger Ascham, in his _Scholemaster_ (1570), agrees with his Strassburg friend, J. Sturm, in making the imitation of the Latin classics the main aim of instruction. He is more original when he insists on the value of translation and retranslation for acquiring a mastery over Latin prose composition, and when he protests against compelling boys to converse in Latin too soon. Ascham's influence is apparent in the _Positions_ of Mulcaster, who in 1581 insists on instruction in English before admission to a grammar-school, while he is distinctly in advance of his age in urging the foundation of a special college for the training of teachers.

Cleland.

Bacon, Milton, Petty.

Locke.

Cleland's _Institution of a Young Nobleman_ (1607) owes much to the Italian humanists. The author follows Ascham in protesting against compulsory Latin conversation, and only slightly modifies his predecessor's method of teaching Latin prose. When Latin grammar has been mastered, he bids the teacher lead his pupil "into the sweet fountain and spring of all Arts and Science," that is, Greek learning which is "as profitable for the understanding as the Latin tongue for speaking." In the study of ancient history, "deeds and not words" are the prime interest. "In Plutarch pleasure is so mixed and confounded with profit; that I esteem the reading of him as a paradise for a curious spirit to walk in at all time." Bacon in his _Advancement of Learning_ (1605) notes it as "the first distemper of learning when men study words and not matter" (I. iv. 3); he also observes that the Jesuits "have much quickened and strengthened the state of learning" (I. vi. 15). He is on the side of reform in education; he waves the humanist aside with the words: _vetustas cessit, ratio vicit_. Milton, in his _Tractate on Education_ (1644), advances further on Bacon's lines, protesting against the length of time spent on instruction in language, denouncing merely verbal knowledge, and recommending the study of a large number of classical authors for the sake of their subject-matter, and with a view to their bearing on practical life. His ideal place of education is an institution combining a school and a university. Sir William Petty, the economist (1623-1687), urged the establishment of _ergastula literaria_ for instruction of a purely practical kind. Locke, who had been educated at Winchester and had lectured on Greek at Oxford (1660), nevertheless almost completely eliminated Greek from the scheme which he unfolded in his _Thoughts on Education_ (1693). With Locke, the moral and practical qualities of virtue and prudence are of the first consideration. Instruction, he declares, is but the least part of education; his aim is to train, not men of letters or men of science, but practical men armed for the battle of life. Latin was, above all, to be learned through use, with as little grammar as possible, but with the reading of easy Latin texts, and with no repetition, no composition. Greek he absolutely proscribes, reserving a knowledge of that language to the learned and the lettered, and to professional scholars.

Arnold.

Throughout the 18th century and the early part of the 19th, the old routine went on in England with little variety, and with no sign of expansion. The range of studies was widened, however, at Rugby in 1828-1842 by Thomas Arnold, whose interest in ancient history and geography, as a necessary part of classical learning, is attested by his edition of Thucydides; while his influence was still further extended when those who had been trained in his traditions became head masters of other schools.

During the rest of the century the leading landmarks are the three royal commissions known by the names of their chairmen: (1) Lord Clarendon's on nine public schools, Eton, Winchester, Westminster, Charterhouse, Harrow, Rugby, Shrewsbury, St Paul's and Merchant Taylors' (1861-1864), resulting in the Public Schools Act of 1868; (2) Lord Taunton's on 782 endowed schools (1864-1867), followed by the act of 1869; and (3) Mr Bryce's on secondary education (1894-1895).

Controversy on classical education.

A certain discontent with the current traditions of classical training found expression in the _Essays on a Liberal Education_ (1867). The author of the first essay, C.S. Parker, closed his review of the reforms instituted in Germany and France by adding that in England there had been but little change. The same volume included a critical examination of the "Theory of Classical Education" by Henry Sidgwick, and an attack on compulsory Greek and Latin verse composition by F.W. Farrar. The claims of verse composition have since been judiciously defended by the Hon. Edward Lyttelton (1897), while a temperate and effective restatement of the case for the classics may be found in Sir Richard Jebb's Romanes Lecture on "Humanism in Education" (1899).

The question of the position of Greek in secondary education has from time to time attracted attention in connexion with the requirement of Greek in Responsions at Oxford, and in the Previous Examination at Cambridge.

"Compulsory Greek."

In the _Cambridge University Reporter_ for November 9, 1870, it was stated that, "in order to provide adequate encouragement for the study of Modern Languages and Natural Science," the commissioners for endowed schools had determined on the establishment of modern schools of the first grade in which Greek would be excluded. The commissioners feared that, so long as Greek was a _sine qua non_ at the universities, these schools would be cut off from direct connexion with the universities, while the universities would in some degree lose their control over a portion of the higher culture of the nation. On the 9th of March 1871 a syndicate recommended that, in the Previous Examination, French and German (taken together) should be allowed in place of Greek; on the 27th of April this recommendation (which only affected candidates for honours or for medical degrees) was rejected by 51 votes to 48.

All the other proposals and votes relating to Greek in the Previous Examination in 1870-1873, 1878-1880, and 1891-1892 are set forth in the _Cambridge University Reporter_ for November 11, 1904, pp. 202-205. In November 1903 a syndicate was appointed to consider the studies and examinations of the university, their report of November 1904 on the Previous Examination was fully discussed, and the speeches published in the _Reporter_ fcr December 17, 1904. In the course of the discussion Sir Richard Jebb drew attention to the statistics collected by the master of Emmanuel, Mr W. Chawner, showing that, out of 86 head masters belonging to the Head Masters' Conference whose replies had been published, "about 56 held the opinion that the exemption from Greek for all candidates for a degree would endanger or altogether extinguish the study of Greek in the vast majority of schools, while about 21 head masters held a different opinion." On the 3rd of March 1905 a proposal for accepting either French or German as an alternative for either Latin or Greek in the Previous Examination was rejected by 1559 to 1052 votes, and on the 26th of May 1906 proposals distinguishing between students in letters and students in science, and (_inter alia_) _requiring_ the latter to take either French or German for either Latin or Greek in the Previous Examination, were rejected by 746 to 241.

Meanwhile, at Oxford a proposal practically making Greek optional with all undergraduates was rejected, in November 1902, by 189 votes to 166; a preliminary proposal permitting students of mathematics or natural science to offer one or more modern languages in lieu of Greek was passed by 164 to 162 in February 1904, but on the 29th of November the draft of a statute to this effect was thrown out by 200 to 164. In the course of the controversy three presidents of the Royal Society, Lord Kelvin, Lord Lister and Sir W. Huggins, expressed the opinion that the proposed exemption was not beneficial to science students.

The Classical Association.

Incidentally, the question of "compulsory Greek" has stimulated a desire for greater efficiency in classical teaching. In December 1903, a year before the most important of the public discussions at Cambridge, the Classical Association was founded in London. The aim of that association is "to promote the development, and maintain the well-being, of classical studies, and in particular (a) to impress upon public opinion the claim of such studies to an eminent place in the national scheme of education; (b) to improve the practice of classical teaching by free discussion of its scope and methods; (c) to encourage investigation and call attention to new discoveries; (d) to create opportunities of friendly intercourse and co-operation between all lovers of classical learning in this country."

The curriculum.

The question of the curriculum and the time-table in secondary education has occupied the attention of the Classical Association, the British Association and the Education Department of Scotland. The general effect of the recommendations already made would be to begin the study of foreign languages with French, and to postpone the study of Latin to the age of twelve and that of Greek to the age of thirteen. At the Head Masters' Conference of December 1907 a proposal to lower the standard of Greek in the entrance scholarship examinations of public schools was lost by 10 votes to 16, and the "British Association report" was adopted with reservations in 1908. In the case of secondary schools in receipt of grants of public money (about 700 in England and 100 in Wales in 1907-1908), "the curriculum, and time-table must be approved by the Board of Education." The Board has also a certain control over the curriculum of schools under the Endowed Schools Acts and the Charitable Trusts Acts, and also over that of schools voluntarily applying for inspection with a view to being recognized as efficient.

Reform in Latin pronunciation.

Further efficiency in classical education has been the aim of the movement in favour of the reform of Latin pronunciation. In 1871 this movement resulted in Munro and Palmer's _Syllabus of Latin Pronunciation_. The reform was carried forward at University College, London, by Professor Key and by Professor Robinson Ellis in 1873, and was accepted at Shrewsbury, Marlborough, Liverpool College, Christ's Hospital, Dulwich, and the City of London school. It was taken up anew by the Cambridge Philological Society in 1886, by the Modern Languages Association in 1901, by the Classical Association in 1904-1905, and the Philological Societies of Oxford and Cambridge in 1906. The reform was accepted by the various bodies of head masters and assistant masters in December 1906-January 1907, and the proposed scheme was formally approved by the Board of Education in February 1907.

See W.H. Woodward, _Studies in Education during the Age of the
Renaissance_ (1906), chap. xiii.; Acland and Llewellin Smith, _Studies
in Secondary Education_, with introduction by James Bryce (1892);
_Essays on a Liberal Education_, ed. F.W. Farrar (1867); R.C. Jebb,
"Humanism in Education," Romanes Lecture of 1899, reprinted with other
lectures on cognate subjects in _Essays and Addresses_ (1907); Foster
Watson, _The Curriculum and Practice of the English Grammar Schools up
to 1660_ (1908); "Greek at Oxford," by a Resident, in _The Times_
(December 27, 1904); _Cambridge University Reporter_ (November 11 and
December 17, 1904); _British Association Report on Curricula of
Secondary Schools_ (with an independent paper by Professor Armstrong
on "The Teaching of Classics"), (December 1907); W.H.D. Rouse in _The
Year's Work in Classical Studies_ (1907 and 1908), chap. i.; J.P.
Postgate, _How to pronounce Latin_ (Appendix B, on "Recent Progress"),
(1907). For further bibliographical details see pp. 875-890 of Dr Karl
Breul's "Grossbritannien" in Baumeister's _Handbuch_, I. ii. 737-892
(Munich, 1897).

France.

2. In _France_ it was mainly with a view to promoting the study of Greek that the corporation of Royal Readers was founded by Francis I. in 1530 at the prompting of Budaeus. In the university of Paris, which was originally opposed to this innovation, the statutes of 1598 prescribed the study of Homer, Hesiod, Pindar, Theocritus, Plato, Demosthenes and Isocrates (as well as the principal Latin classics), and required the production of three exercises in Greek or Latin in each week.

Textbooks.

From the middle of the 16th century the elements of Latin were generally learned from unattractive abridgments of the grammar of the Flemish scholar, van Pauteren or Despautere (d. 1520), which, in its original folio editions of 1537-1538, was an excellent work. The unhappy lot of those who were compelled to learn their Latin from the current abridgments was lamented by a Port-Royalist in a striking passage describing the gloomy forest of _le pays de Despautere_ (Guyot, quoted in Sainte-Beuve's _Port-Royal_, iii. 429). The first Latin grammar written in French was that of Pere de Condren of the _Oratoire_ (c. 1642), which was followed by the Port-Royal _Methode latine_ of Claude Lancelot (1644), and by the grammar composed by Bossuet for the dauphin, and also used by Fenelon for the instruction of the duc de Bourgogne. In the second half of the 17th century the rules of grammar and rhetoric were simplified, and the time withdrawn from the practice of composition (especially verse composition) transferred to the explanation and the study of authors.

Richelieu, Bossuet, Fenelon, Fleury.

Richelieu, in 1640, formed a scheme for a college in which Latin was to have a subordinate place, while room was to be found for the study of history and science, Greek, and French and modern languages. Bossuet, in educating the dauphin, added to the ordinary classical routine represented by the extensive series of the "Delphin Classics" the study of history and of science. A greater originality in the method of teaching the ancient languages was exemplified by Fenelon, whose views were partially reflected by the Abbe Fleury, who also desired the simplification of grammar, the diminution of composition, and even the suppression of Latin verse. Of the ordinary teaching of Greek in his day, Fleury wittily observed that most boys "learned just enough of that language to have a pretext for saying for the rest of their lives that Greek was a subject easily forgotten."

Rollin.

In the 18th century Rollin, in his _Traite des etudes_ (1726), agreed with the Port-Royalists in demanding that Latin grammars should be written in French, that the rules should be simplified and explained by a sufficient number of examples, and that a more important place should be assigned to translation than to composition. The supremacy of Latin was the subject of a long series of attacks in the same century. Even at the close of the previous century the brilliant achievements of French literature had prompted La Bruyere to declare in _Des ouvrages de l'esprit_ (about 1680), "We have at last thrown off the yoke of _Latinism_"; and, in the same year, Jacques Spon claimed in his correspondence the right to use the French language in discussing points of archaeology.

The Jesuits.

Meanwhile, in 1563, notwithstanding the opposition of the university of Paris, the Jesuits had succeeded in founding the _Collegium Claromontanum_. After the accession of Henry IV. they were expelled from Paris and other important towns in 1594, and not allowed to return until 1609, when they found themselves confronted once more by their rival, the university of Paris. They opened the doors of their schools to the Greek and Latin classics, but they represented the ancient masterpieces dissevered from their original historic environment, as impersonal models of taste, as isolated standards of style. They did much, however, for the cultivation of original composition modelled on Cicero and Virgil. They have been charged with paying an exaggerated attention to form, and with neglecting the subject-matter of the classics. This neglect is attributed to their anxiety to avoid the "pagan" element in the ancient literature. Intensely conservative in their methods, they kept up the system of using Latin in their grammars (and in their oral instruction) long after it had been abandoned by others.

Port-Royal.

The use of French for these purposes was a characteristic of the "Little Schools" of the Jansenists of Port-Royal(1643-1660). The text-books prepared for them by Lancelot included not only the above-mentioned Latin grammar (1644) but also the _Methode grecque_ of 1655 and the _Jardin des racines grecques_ (1657), which remained in use for two centuries and largely superseded the grammar of Clenardus (1636) and the _Tirocinium_ of Pere Labbe (1648). Greek began to decline in the university about 1650, at the very time when the Port-Royalists were aiming at its revival. During the brief existence of their schools their most celebrated pupils were Tillemont and Racine.

The Jesuits, on the other hand, claimed Corneille and Moliere, as well as Descartes and Bossuet, Fontenelle, Montesquieu and Voltaire. Of their Latin poets the best-known were Denis Petau (d. 1652), Rene Rapin (d. 1687) and N.E. Sanadon (d. 1733). In 1762 the Jesuits were suppressed, and more than one hundred schools were thus deprived of their teachers. The university of Paris, which had prompted their suppression, and the parliament, which had carried it into effect, made every endeavour to replace them. The university took possession of the _Collegium Claromontanum_, then known as the _College Louis-le-Grand_, and transformed it into an _ecole normale_. Many of the Jesuit schools were transferred to the congregations of the _Oratoire_ and the Benedictines, and to the secular clergy. On the eve of the Revolution, out of a grand total of 562 classical schools, 384 were in the hands of the clergy and 178 in those of the congregations.

Classical education attacked.

The expulsion of the Jesuits gave a new impulse to the attacks directed against all schemes of education in which Latin held a prominent position. At the moment when the university of Paris was, by the absence of its rivals, placed in complete control of the education of France, she found herself driven to defend the principles of classical education against a crowd of assailants. All kinds of devices were suggested for expediting the acquisition of Latin; grammar was to be set aside; Latin was to be learned as a "living language"; much attention was to be devoted to acquiring an extensive vocabulary; and, "to save time," composition was to be abolished. To facilitate the reading of Latin texts, the favourite method was the use of interlinear translations, originally proposed by Locke, first popularized in France by Dumarsais (1722), and in constant vogue down to the time of the Revolution.

Early in the 18th century Rollin pleaded for the "utility of Greek," while he described that language as the heritage of the university of Paris. In 1753 Berthier feared that in thirty years no one would be able to read Greek. In 1768 Rolland declared that the university, which held Greek in high honour, nevertheless had reason to lament that her students learnt little of the language, and he traced this decline to the fact that attendance at lectures had ceased to be compulsory. Greek, however, was still recognized as part of the examination held for the appointment of schoolmasters.

Eve of the Revolution.

During the 18th century, in Greek as well as in Latin, the general aim was to reach the goal as rapidly as possible, even at the risk of missing it altogether. On the eve of the Revolution, France was enjoying the study of the institutions of Greece in the attractive pages of the _Voyage du jeune Anacharsis_ (1789), but the study of Greek was menaced even more than that of Latin. For fifty years before the Revolution there was a distinct dissatisfaction with the routine of the schools. To meet that dissatisfaction, the teachers had accepted new subjects of study, had improved their methods, and had simplified the learning of the dead languages. But even this was not enough. In the study of the classics, as in other spheres, it was revolution rather than evolution that was loudly demanded.

First Republic.

The Revolution was soon followed by the long-continued battle of the "Programmes." Under the First Republic the schemes of Condorcet (April 1792) and J. Lakanal (February 1795) were superseded by that of P.C.F. Daunou (October 1795), which divided the pupils of the "central schools" into three groups, according to age, with corresponding subjects of study: (1) twelve to fourteen,--drawing, natural history, Greek and Latin, and a choice of modern languages; (2) fourteen to sixteen,--mathematics, physics, chemistry; (3) over sixteen,--general grammar, literature, history and constitutional law..

Consulate.

In July 1801, under the consulate, there were two courses, (1) nine to twelve,--elementary knowledge, including elements of Latin; (2) above twelve,--a higher course, with two alternatives, "humanistic" studies for the "civil," and purely practical studies for the "military" section. The law of the 1st of May 1802 brought the _lycees_ into existence, the subjects being, in Napoleon's own phrase, "mainly Latin and mathematics."

Restoration.

At the Restoration (1814) the military discipline of the lycees was replaced by the ecclesiastical discipline of the "Royal Colleges." The reaction of 1815-1821 in favour of classics was followed by the more liberal programme of Vatimesnil (1829), including, for those who had no taste for a classical education, certain "special courses" (1830), which were the germ of the _enseignement special_ and the _enseignement moderne_.

Third Republic.