Latin 260: Early Christian Writers

August 29, 2002

 

 

We will be using three texts in this course:

James Halporn, ed., Passio Sanctarum Perpetuae et Felicitatis (Bryn Mawr: 1984)

T. R. Glover and G. H. Rendall, eds., Loeb edition of Tertullian’s Apology and de Spectaculis,

            and of Minucius Felix’s Octavius

J. Campbell and M. McGuire, eds., The Confessions of St. Augustine (Chicago: 1984)

 

Campus Copy also has a ClassPak for Latin 260.  Included in ClassPak are:

1.  Selections from Jerome’s Vulgate.  Introduction, texts and notes taken from K. Sidwell, Reading Medieval Latin (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1995)

                        I Sam 17:1-54

                        Canticum Canticorum 1:1-16

                        Luke 23

                        I Corinthians 13

            2.  Cyprian’s letters.  From G. F. Diercks, ed., Sancti Cypriani Epistularium, I (1994)

                        Epistula 4 (Pomponio), on virgins

                        Epistula 40 (presbyteris et diaconibus), on martyrs and confessors

                        Epistulae 44, 46 and 52, on Novatian and his followers

                        Epistulae LXXVII through LXXXI, Bayard edition, on Cyprians’s last days

                        Cyprianic fragment (mss. Holkam 121)

            3. Jerome

                        Epistula I (ad Innocentium Presbyterum de septies percussa)

                        Epistula X (ad Paulum senem concordiae)

                        Epistula XVI (ad Damasum)

 

By the middle of September we will begin opening each session with a short quiz on the reading assigned for the day.  These quizzes will count for 40% of the semester grade.  We will also have a midterm, after reading Cyprian’s letters, and a final exam.  Graduate students must also write a research paper.

 

Schedule of readings:

 

Selections from Jerome’s Vulgate: September 3 - 5

Passio Perpetuae: September 10 - 24

Reading of Tertullian’s Apology and De Spectaculis in English: Sept. 26 - Oct. 1

Cyprian’s letters: October 3 -17

Jerome’s letters: October 24 - 29

Augustine’s Confessions: October 31 - December 10

Early Christian hymns and poetry: December 12