Classics in the Middle Ages

Abstract

This article deals primarily with the transmission and reception in western Europe of classical Greek and Latin texts written before 525 ce and focuses on the Latin tradition. The chronological limits observed here are 525 ce–c. 1400 ce These “bookend” dates apply, respectively, to the death of Boethius, a transition figure between Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, and the activity of Coluccio Salutati, who spanned the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. (Note that Petrarch died in 1374, Boccaccio in the following year.) The entry does not attempt to deal with the work of the humanists of the fifteenth and later centuries. Because the term “classical” has always been associated with “pagan” or “secular,” Christian works written in Greek or Latin have been excluded, despite their well-established value for the history of pagan literature, religion, philosophy, and culture. (The one exception is Boethius, who translated “pagan” philosophical works from the Greek.) It is not possible to include every writer known to have written in Antiquity, nor even every work by well-known writers. Some late Latin writers have been included, notably Macrobius, Martianus Capella, Servius, and the mythographer Fulgentius because of their extraordinary role in the transmission of the antique secular tradition to the Middle Ages in the West. This article also includes sections on centers of transmission, books collections, mythography, the medieval commentary tradition, and ancient influences on medieval literary theory. However, only occasional references to the vast bibliography of the influence of classical literature on the individual European vernacular literatures will be provided here. Editions are cited only when their introductions contain information not available from secondary sources. The overarching aim of the article is to highlight the achievement of the Latin Middle Ages in preserving the ancient classics and appropriating them for new uses in a Christian civilization.