Beginning Latin Study, part 1

The world, for the purposes of this blog anyway, is divided into two camps. People who have studied Latin and people who have not. This next series of posts is going to be aimed at those who have not studied Latin.

Are you Latin-curious? Have you thought about Latin study but don't know where to begin? Let's try to clear that up. I'll assume you've heard how terribly difficult it is, so I won't say more other than to say that those claims are greatly exaggerated. Sanskrit is hard.

Anyway.

You need to have a clear reason for Latin study in mind. It doesn't matter what your reason is at the outset. Any reason will do. You want to study Latin so you can learn English vocabulary for the SAT? Good. You want to study Latin to connect with the Roman stream of world culture? Good. You want to study Latin because it helps critical thinking? Good.

All reasons are good, but they will influence how you go about your study. Why am I so big on you having a reason? Because you're going to need motivation. I lied earlier. Latin study is hard, but not for the reasons you've heard. It is hard because it is new. You will have to do things that you didn't do before, and you're going to need a good reason to put up with the work.

So your work before the next post is this: why do you want to study Latin anyway?

New AP Vergil textbook

Bolchazy has sent me their latest AP textbooks. Setting my reservations about the AP aside, let's get to the Vergil book.

The new Vergil text is considerably thinner than previous editions, though its title is still every bit as big Vergil's Aeneid: Selected Readings from Books 1, 2, 4, and 6. The book is smaller for good reason, since the grammatical appendix, which should be familiar to those of you who know and love the Pharr Aeneid, is now online. This appendix is a great resource for all Latin students, not just those studying Vergil. It is now searchable and free. Bolchazy scores major points for this.

Previous editions of AP Vergil selections from Bolchazy have been, so far as I can tell, edited and expanded versions of the Pharr Aeneid, which is commendable and useful. This book is a completely new book. Boyd follows Pharr's format, but that is the limit of Pharr's intrusion into the book. Annoyingly this even extends to italicizing words in the poem that are part of the high-frequency list—but Boyd cannot be faulted for following Pharr's lead here. Otherwise, everything else is new.

The introduction is clearly written for AP users, but anyone should get good information out of it. The body of the text is well annotated. The notes in fact go beyond mere grammatical help but veer toward commentary. In fact, at some points it approaches philology. From a note on p. 75:

198. Hic: pronounce hicc (as if from the earlier spelling of the word, hicce).

Right on. This stuff is good for you. In other places Boyd indicates multiple interpretations. Again, p. 75.

solum, līmina: take either as obj. of sacrāverat (200), like ignem, or supply erant.

 I like this too. Language can be ambiguous, sometimes deliberately so. Boyd allows Vergil to be ambiguous, which is one of the joys of reading poetry. I am thrilled to see this built into a student edition. Boyd has also taken the -is accusative endings out for third declension nouns. I cannot say whether this is the right thing to do, but it will make the text more accessible to students. In my estimation, when the author of a book keeps that criterion in mind, the results will justify themselves.

And this book does for AP students, as well as first-time readers of Vergil.