| Description |
xix, 604 pages ; 24 cm |
| Series |
Cambridge studies in medieval literature ; 19 |
|
Cambridge studies in medieval literature ; 19
|
| Contents |
Grammatica: A historical and methodological introduction -- 1. The formation of grammatica within classical discursive practices -- 2. The developing model of grammatica in the Roman and early medieval world -- 3. Linguistic foundations -- 4. Enarratio I: Commentaries on Vergil from Donatus to Fulgentius -- 5. Grammatica and the formation of medieval textual communities: Alexandria to Isidore of Seville -- 6. Enarratio II: interpretation and the grammar of allegory -- 7. Grammatica and textual culture in Anglo-Saxon England and Carolingian Europe -- 8. The genres of grammatical culture and manuscript textuality -- 9. The implications of grammatical culture in Anglo-Saxon England -- 10. Conclusion |
| Summary |
The book is based on new and previously neglected sources, many of which have been edited and translated from medieval manuscripts for the first time |
|
This is the first major study of the cultural work performed by grammatica, the central discipline concerned with literacy, language, interpretation, and literature in medieval society. Grammatica was concerned with all aspects of the Latin literary text, its language, meaning, and value. Martin Irvine demonstrates that grammatica, though the first of the liberal arts, was not simply one discipline among many: it had an essentially constitutive function, defining language, meaning, and texts for the other medieval disciplines. Martin Irvine draws together several aspects of medieval culture - literary theory, the nature of literacy, education, biblical interpretation, the literary canon, and linguistic thought - in order to disclose the more far-reaching social effects of grammatica, chief of which was the making of textual culture in the medieval West |
| Analysis |
Literature History |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 553-598) and indexes |
| Subject |
Latin literature -- Criticism, Textual.
|
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Latin literature -- History and criticism -- Theory, etc.
|
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Literature, Medieval -- Criticism, Textual.
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Literature, Medieval -- History and criticism -- Theory, etc.
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Transmission of texts.
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| LC no. |
93019603 |
| ISBN |
0521414474 |
|
