Latin Textbooks Research Articles

Ways of reading: evaluating different approaches to reading Latin stories with a Year 9 class in a selective boys' school

Abstract Before I started teacher training, my default approach to a story in a Latin textbook was to translate it into English. I assumed that this was how you best understood what was happening in the story, and how you showed that you understood. Although I had done other things as a learner myself, including comprehension exercises, my prevailing memory was of translation. Translation is a highly valued and prioritised skill, as seen in the weight given to it in examinations and assessments – though in my school placements I regularly see ‘translations’ that are near-incomprehensible ‘translationese’ rather than fluent English. This means that often after translating a sentence or passage – a very time-consuming activity – you can ask a student, ‘So, what does that mean? What's going on here?’ and that student will struggle to explain. I therefore wanted to investigate other ways to approach Latin stories. I will not claim that we were reading Latin in the truest sense of reading (left to right, at normal speed, comprehending the Latin in Latin and not needing recourse to English), but the three approaches we explored did engage with the texts without requiring literal English translation.

Rewriting the Textbook: an investigation into students’ practices with creative composition in a Year 7 Latin class

Abstract This project investigated the effectiveness of a creative Latin composition exercise. Within this exercise, students built upon existing Latin textbook material, inserting their own character into an existing Cambridge Latin Course (CLC) story (CSCP, 1998). This form of exercise has links to more conventional prose composition exercises, but it also takes inspiration from exercises which use fanfiction to improve language skills (Bahoric and Swaggerty, 2015).

O najdawniejszej włoskiej leksykografii dwujęzycznej, znanej i nieznanej

On the Earliest Italian Bilingual Lexicography, Known and Unknown Since the Latin language became part of the education system, all kinds of grammatical compendiums, dictionaries, and commentaries on classical works of Greco-Roman literature have been an indispensable tool for exploring its intricacies. The turn of the 14th and 15th centuries was extremely interesting in this respect as it abounded in diverse and original works of this type, especially in Italy. The issues of studiorum humanitatis are discussed in such works as Elegantiae Linguae Latinae by Lorenzo Valle, Regulae grammaticales by Guarino Guarini, Epitoma seu Regulae constructionis and Latini sermonis emporium by Antonio Mancinelli, or the less known bilingual Glossarium by Jacopo Ursello from Roccantica. The books testify to teachers’ intentions to respond to the specific educational needs existing at that time, when it was necessary to educate students in written, spoken, and—to an increasing extent—Vulgar Latin. This article analyzes the above-mentioned Latin textbooks by Antonio Mancinelli and Jacopo Ursello, in which various aspects of Italianization operate in the light of the most important lexicographic sources of the era.

Latijnse vocabulaireverwerving in context

A central topic of discussion in second language acquisition research is the question whether new vocabulary should be presented to pupils by means of vocabulary lists or in phrases (context). This question is not raised as often by teachers of Latin and it is therefore unsurprising that vocabulary lists have dominated Latin text books in the Netherlands for decades. This article concentrates on the effects of presenting Latin vocabulary in context. It investigates which learning strategies pupils use if vocabulary is presented in context, and the relationship between these strategies and memorisation. For this purpose, three pupils are involved in a think-aloud protocol while learning Latin vocabulary in context. The analysis shows that the pupils seldom attempt to translate the phrases, presumably because of the complex grammar, but tend to fall back on familiar, common strategies such as repetition, to memorise new words. Therefore, the author advises future writers of text books who consider to present vocabulary in context, to develop exercises that explicitly stimulate pupils to translate the context as a strategy to discover the meaning of new words.

The Utility and Representational Opportunity of Latin Novellas

This paper argues for the use of the Latin novella in Latin, educational contexts, particularly within the K-12 classroom. The design of Latin novellas corresponds to features associated with Comprehensible Input: offering a limited and repeated vocabulary, and providing compelling narratives. The many Latin novellas now published broaden the opportunity for narrative selection by Latin students, giving students a choice in what they read. Moreover, many narratives feature central characters that increase the representation of layers of society typically found in Latin textbooks or in the ancient, classical sources. By way of example, Cloelia, by Ellie Arnold, receives focus in this paper.

The first Russian textbook on logic: Historical, logical, and textual analysis

The article is devoted to one of the first Russian textbooks on logic written by Makariy Petrovich (1733–1765), a professor of the Moscow Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy. The analysis of this work demonstrates that it was not a simple translation of some Latin textbook (such translations were published later, after the foundation of the Moscow University). The textbook is a result of Makariy’s (and his predecessors) years of teaching logic in Russian religious schools. It is, to some extent, an original work. The article explores the peculiarities of Makariy’s rendition of logic. For example, the chapters on syllogistics illustrate that Makariy was somewhat innovative: he replaced Latin names for the modes of the categorical syllogism with made-up Cyrillic words (while keeping to the rules defining the choice of Latin letters). It seems that he strived to make logic more practical and as a result, wrote the textbook entirely in Cyrillic. The article considers the historical context of Makariy’s work and its place in the history of logic. The authors make several assumptions as to why Mikhil Lomonosov did not publish the first Russian textbook on logic and also why Makariy’s book was not printed. The authors’ comparative study of XVIII century textbooks on logic makes it possible to specify some probable sources for “Logic”, both Latin and Greek. In addition, Makariy’s approach to the translation of logical terms (some of them he translated into Russian while others were transliterated) is considered. After thorough examination of all three surviving manuscripts of Makariy’s “Logic”, the authors conclude that this textbook is worthy of proper publication.

Portrayal of the Germani in Latin Textbooks in Germany, 1945\u20131989

This article is a contribution to the history of classical education, focused on the reception of Roman texts about Germania in German schools between 1945 and 1989. The period under discussion here represents a time during which there was an aversion to handling material tainted by its appropriation under Nazi ideology, and traces the development of new approaches to its treatment.

The Portrayal of the Germani in Latin Textbooks in Germany, 1989–2009

A survey of the portrayal of the Germani in Latin textbooks from 1989 to 2009, tracing the resurgence of interest in the Germani in the Federal Republic of Germany after German reunification and leading up to bimillennial commemoration of the battle in the Teutoburg Forest. The central sources are textbooks for the teaching of Latin, while context is provided by academic scholarship and representations of the Germani in other cultural contexts, including film and theatre, museums and tourist attractions. The study traces a process of demythologisation and the rise of a myth of mythlessness in the handling of ancient Germanic history. Germany’s role in the European Union is considered as a developing influence on the portrayal of ancient Germania, including Germania Romana, the Roman provinces of Germania, and Germania libera, the lands outside the empire.

A critical investigation of Y7 students’ perceptions of Roman slavery as evidenced in the stories of theCambridge Latin Course

In an article,‘The Slaves were Happy’: High School Latin and the Horrors of Classical Studies,Erik Robinson, a Latin teacher from a public high school in Texas, criticises how, in his experience, Classics teaching tends to avoid in-depth discussions on issues such as the brutality of war, the treatment of women and the experience of slaves (Robinson, 2017). However, texts such as the article ‘Teaching Sensitive Topics in the Secondary Classics Classroom’ (Hunt, 2016), and the book ‘From abortion to pederasty: addressing difficult topics in the Classics classroom’ (Sorkin Rabinowitz & McHardy, 2014) strongly advocate for teachers to address these difficult and sensitive topics. They argue that the historical distance between us and Greco-Roman culture and history can allow students to engage and participate in discussions that may otherwise be difficult and can provide a valuable opportunity to address uncomfortable topics in the classroom. Thus, Robinson's assertion that Classics teaching avoids these sensitive topics may not be so definitive. Regardless, Robinson claims that honest confrontations in the classroom with the ‘legacy of horror and abuse’ from the ancient world can be significantly complicated by many introductory textbooks used in Latin classes, such as theCambridge Latin Course(CLC), one of the most widely used high school Latin textbooks in use in both America and the United Kingdom (Robinson, 2017). In particular, Robinson views the presentation of slavery within theCLCas ‘rather jocular and trivialising’ which can then hinder a reader's perspective on the realities of the violent and abusive nature of the Roman slave trade (Robinson, 2017). As far as he was concerned, the problem lay with the characterisation of theCLC's slave characters Grumio and Clemens, who, he argued, were presented there as happy beings and seemingly unfazed by their positions as slaves. There was never any hint in the book that Grumio or Clemens were unhappy with their lives or their positions as slaves, even though, as theCLCitself states in its English background section on Roman slavery, Roman law ‘did not regard slaves as human beings, but as things that could be bought or sold, treated well or badly, according to the whim of their master’ (CLCI, 1998, p. 78). One might argue, therefore, that there seems to be a disconnect between the English language information we learn about the brutality of the Roman slave trade provided in the background section of Stage 6, and what we can infer about Roman slavery from the Latin language stories involving our two ‘happy’ slaves.

Teacher Trainees Telling Tales

Trainees were encouraged to tell a mythological story to the class, lasting about ten minutes. They could use props and other visual aids if they wished, but the emphasis was for them to practise speaking before the class, using prompt cards if necessary, and employing all the techniques of a professional oral ‘poet’ – such as gesture, eye contact, tone of voice and so on. There is obviously considerable general interest among younger students about mythology. Locally, interest is captured by the Cambridge School Classics project which puts on an annual Ovid Mythology competition and the website War with Troy is used by several of the schools where trainees are placed. Its use as a stimulus for learning has been well-documented by its author and past PGCE subject lecturer Bob Lister (2005, 2007) and by Walker (2018), a former teacher trainee from the faculty. Some of the Latin textbooks such as Minimus (Bell, 1999) and Suburani (Hands-Up Education, 2020) contain myth episodes and are familiar to the teacher trainees. The GCSE and A Level qualifications often contain mythological subject matter. Khan-Evans (2018) has shown how older students of Classics have retained deep-rooted affection for mythological stories in their earlier schooldays. Research into the power of mythological storytelling as a stimulus for learning, creative arts and even therapy is current, as the Our Mythical Childhood project (2020) has demonstrated. A book of the project's work is eagerly anticipated next year. The recent Troy exhibition at the British Museum has also awoken considerable interest.

NEW LATIN LANGUAGE TEXTBOOK FOR MEDICAL SPECIALTIES

For a long time in Bulgaria, there has been a need for a suitable Latin textbook for medical specialties with a 30-hour course, such as nursing, obstetrics, dental assistance, etc. The authors Dimitar Mirchev, PhD and Assoc. prof. Rossen Milanov aim to fill this niche through the preparation of the presented textbook. The textbook is based on the existing Latin-language textbooks in Bulgaria, while at the same time the authors strive to improve the available methodical systems for the education of students with a schedule of 30 hours per term. The main feature of the textbook is the separation of the grammar into 15 topics, according to the number of study weeks for the specialties mentioned. The authors’ purpose is to offer a balanced amount of exercises corresponding to the limited amount of time for the students to acquire the desired knowledge. This is also one of the main differences between the existing textbooks for а 60-hour schedule and the current textbook. The selection and synthesis of these exercises and the achievement of the final goal, namely the acquisition of sufficient Latin terminology corresponding to the actual needs in the students’ practical field, proved to be a difficult task and a great challenge for the authors. In Bulgaria, before 1989, there are relatively few Latin-language textbooks for medical specialties. Then the nursing and obstetrics are outside the higher education system and study in special secondary schools or colleges, while in the higher schools they prepare specialties of medicine, dentistry and pharmacy. For this reason, Latin textbooks are divided respectively for higher education institutions and for secondary school specialties. Since 2007 the nursing and obstetrics enter the higher education system and receive a Bachelor's degree. These specialties are taught in Latin, usually with textbooks prepared for medicine and dentistry. Basically this is not a problem, but gradually textbooks that are appropriate for these specialties have been prepared, according to their academic workload. Nowadays , there are no more than 3-4 textbooks in Bulgaria for classes of 30 hours. In this article, the above-mentioned textbook will be presented, highlighting its advantages and benefits on the basis of existing ones. Nurses, obstetrics and other specialties with similar workload in latin language have chiefly difficulties in learning the grammar that is absolutely necessary for the proper use of anatomical and clinical terminology. At the same time, the practice shows that all medical specialists are hampered by the correct pronunciation of medical terms, which is also a major challenge for the teachers. The textbook is divided into a grammar part with exercises according to the teaching material, greek terminology and Latin-Bulgarian and Bulgarian-Latin dictionary.

О СООТНОШЕНИИ ВИЗАНТИЙСКОЙ И ЗАПАДНОЙ ЛОГИЧЕСКИХ ТРАДИЦИЙ

The article explores a little-known work of Byzantine literature of the 13th century, a textbook on log-ic by Nikephoros Blemmydes, an outstanding figure in a special period in the history of Byzantium, the period of the Nicene Empire, which arose after the conquest of Constantinople by the Latins. Nikephoros Blemmydes (1197—c. 1272) was a philosopher, rhetorician, theologian and teacher. A treatise Epitome logica in Greek is analyzed in the present article in order to identify the sources of this work and its influence on the development of logic in the East and in the West. For a detailed analysis in this article, one of the main sections of scholastic logic is chosen—the doctrine of the categorical syllogism. The presentation of this doctrine by Nikephoros Blemmydes has its peculiarities. First, only three figures with 14, and not 19, correct modes are presented. Second, the presentation is accompanied by Greek lettering and graphic images of the modes of syllogism. In the treatises by Latin authors such a graphic development of the doctrine of categorical syllogism has not been found by us. However, similar patterns were discovered by us in George of Trebizond (1395, Crete—approx. 1473, Rome). George of Trebizond was one of those Greeks who left the de-caying Byzantium and came to the West, enriching it with the culture of the East and becoming the first representatives of the Italian Renaissance. His “Dialectics”, written in 1439–1440, is believed to have become the first textbook on logic in the history of the Renaissance. He wrote it in Latin, but used, as we can see from the text, along with Latin textbooks, mainly Greek manuscripts. Based on the study of the “Logic” of Nikephoros Blemmydes, the conclusion is drawn that the treatise by Nikephoros Blemmydes is least likely to bear traces of Western influence (textbooks by W. Sherwood, Peter of Spain, etc.). It is suggested that the scholastic doctrine of categorical and hypo-thetical syllogisms was developed by peripatetics and Alexandrian neoplatonists, inherited by Byz-antine logicians, and only later underwent its final development in the West.

The “Happy Slave” Narrative and Classics Pedagogy: A Verbal and Visual Analysis of Beginning Greek and Latin Textbooks

In Greek and Latin textbooks, verbal and visual discourses function together to construe Greco-Roman systems of enslavement. This article is a survey of the words and images of enslavement in five popular Greek and Latin textbooks and includes sample lessons for educators to apply in their own classroom. Based on the theories and methodologies of multicultural education and systemic functional linguistics, the findings illustrate how the linguistic resources of appraisal (feelings and character) and transitivity (agency and action) function to sanitize and normalize enslavement. The accompanying comparative analysis to 19th-century American discourses on enslavement to demonstrate how the use of these linguistic resources are consistent across time and context. Therefore, although systems of enslavement in the Greco-Roman world were not race-based, the presentation of enslavement in Greek and Latin textbooks today engages in racist discourses that permeate the American education system.

The Subjects of Slavery in 19<sup>th</sup>-century American Latin Schoolbooks

A new study by the Southern Poverty Law Center has argued that American education is failing in its ability to teach “hard history,” and especially the history of American slavery, to today’s students. In similar ways, Erik Robinson has recently highlighted the difficulty that high school Latin teachers often face teaching certain “horrors” of the ancient world like slavery in their classrooms. Both Robinson and the SPLC call particular attention to the role of textbooks in such failings. In this article I want to share some results of a survey I conducted on the representation of slavery in American Latin schoolbooks from the 19th century. I use these textbooks, and in particular a close reading of student exercises contained within them, to shed light on the problematic ways slavery is presented in today’s books. While I certainly do not seek to “praise” or rationalize the often brutal depictions of slavery in 19th-century schoolbooks, I believe they show a portrayal of slavery that is revealing in its frankness, one that, even through a lens of fear and paranoia, acknowledges the agency and experience of the slave. Such a contrast allows us to “de-naturalize” the ways that slavery is shown in many current Latin textbooks, to understand that the tendency of today’s textbooks to conceal the brutality of slavery behind a bland inoffensiveness (to whom?) is every bit as ideological in its operations and outcomes as grappling with its darkness.

Profesor Janina Niemirska-Pliszczyńska – wybitny dydaktyk i badacz antyku grecko-rzymskiego

The author of this article examines two main areas of life of professor Janina Niemirska-Pliszczynska; both – her educational and scholar activities in order to prove her great contribution to literature and culture not only in our country but also abroad. As a teacher of Latin first in Unia Lubelska Grammar-School and after World War II also in Stanislaw Staszic Grammar-School in Lublin, prof. Niemirska-Pliszczynska demonstrated much pedagogical talent, distinguished knowledge and love for the Greek and Roman Antiquity. As the academic in the Classical Philology Department at the Catholic University of Lublin (from 1952) Prof. Pliszczynska gave lectures on Greek and Roman literature and conducted Greek seminar, proseminar and from 1967 also a doctoral seminar. She was the supervisor of about forty MA dissertations and six doctoral theses as well. To help teachers of classical languages in their didactic work and to make learning Greek and Latin easier for students, Prof. Pliszczynska wrote and published Greek and Latin textbooks and articles on teaching of Latin in the journal Paideia that she edited herself. In spite of many years’ work at secondary schools and her demanding educational activities at the University, she raised excellent literary output including two monographs: De elocutione Pliniana (Lublin 1955) – all written in Latin and: Wokol Dolonei ( Around Doloneia , Lublin 1966) on the authenticity of the tenth song in Homer’s Iliad . It also included several articles on Homer’s epics, Pausanias’ periegesis, Plato’s dialogues, Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics , St. Paul’s letters and language of Clement of Alexandria. And finally it included Prof. Pliszczynska’s perfect translations of Greek and Roman literature: Żywoty cezarow ( The Twelve Caesars , The Lives of the (Twelve) Caesars , Lives of the Caesars – LOEB 1997 ) by Suetonius, Wedrowki po Helladzie ( Description of Greece ) by Pausanias and Dywany , Stromateis ( Stromata ) by Clement of Alexandria. For her outstanding achievements Prof. Pliszczynska was awarded Silver Cross of Merit (1944) and Knight’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (1973).

Satis Superque?: Latin Conjugation in Nine Rules and Three Inflectional Complexions

Latin textbooks formulate grammar rules in terms of spelling rather than processes of sound, giving the impression that verb conjugation is difficult and with much irregularity. This article suggests a consistent way to envision the essentially regular linking of a s tem to a t ense marker to a personal e nding (S-T-E). The “rules” are mostly well known but scattered across the pages of many different books. I organize them here as little more than the regular, predictable “boundary adjustments” of stems before certain tense markers and of tense markers before certain endings. Rules 1–5 affect vowels, and rules 6–9 treat consonants. Thus this exercise in “practical linguistics” goes “behind the scenes” of standard textbook rules. The first and second parts of this article introduce the approach with reference to these rules, while the third explains the rules themselves, with ample illustration.

Mascagni’s bicentenary: the “prince of anatomists” in Pisa

The bicentenary of Paolo Mascagni’s death is the occasion to celebrate an anatomist who strongly took in the spirit of the Enlightenment. Mascagni spent the first part of his life in the University of Siena, where he had many interests, including chemistry, mineralogy, agriculture, and botany. Thanks to his mentor Tabarrani, the anatomical research became his main field of studies. He won great fame with masterpieces dedicated to the first complete description and illustration of the lymphatic system and became president of the Accademia dei Fisiocritici. After meeting with that success, Mascagni conceived the idea to realize an ambitious dream of the anatomists: a complete and life-sized illustration of the human body. Nevertheless, political events delayed his purposes and upset his life. During the French occupation of Tuscany in 1799, he embraced the case of Jacobinism and had the appointment to manage education and culture in the new government of Siena. Because of the defeat of the French army, he fell into disgrace spending about eight months in prison. Finally, at the end of 1800 Mascagni was rehabilitated and left the insecure Siena to move to Pisa, where he was named professor of anatomy at the university on January 1st 1801. Again, after a few months Mascagni was politically disapproved and accused to be irreligious. The embarrassing situation was overcome with a compromise solution: the role of professor in Pisa was maintained, but Mascagni was obliged to teach anatomy in the Santa Maria Nuova Hospital in Florence. The short stay in Pisa was very prolific. Besides the anatomical lessons, and the interesting meeting with Cuvier, Mascagni was concerned with the ultimate preparation of the anatomical tables. Some reports indicate that he lived on the second floor of the historical Agostini’s Palace on the Lungarno, and in a laboratory prepared at the last floor his pupils coloured the anatomical drawings. The masterpiece was published posthumously in 1823-1831 by the Pisan printer Capurro on the initiative of Vacca-Berlinghieri, Barzellotti and Rosini, bearing the right title of Anatomia Universa. The 44 tables represent four front and back dissection layers of the life-sized human body and several detailed viscera. The monumental work also included black and white extra tables and a Latin textbook. Art and science are in debt to Mascagni’s contribution to modern anatomy iconography.

The history of Latin terminology of human skeletal muscles (from Vesalius to the present).

The aim of this literary search was to chart the etymology of 32 selected human skeletal muscles, representative of all body regions. In researching this study, analysis of 15 influential Latin and German anatomical textbooks, dating from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century, was undertaken, as well as reference to four versions of the official Latin anatomical terminologies. Particular emphasis has been placed on the historical development of muscular nomenclature, and the subsequent division of these data into groups, defined by similarities in the evolution of their names into the modern form. The first group represents examples of muscles whose names have not changed since their introduction by Vesalius (1543). The second group comprises muscles which earned their definitive names during the seventeenth and eighteenth century. The third group is defined by acceptance into common anatomical vernacular by the late nineteenth century, including those outlined in the first official Latin terminology (B.N.A.) of 1895. The final group is reserved for six extra-ocular muscles with a particularly poetic history, favoured and popularised by the anatomical giants of late Renaissance and 1,700s. As this study will demonstrate, it is evident that up until introduction of the B.N.A. there was an extremely liberal approach to naming muscles, deserving great respect in the retrospective terminological studies if complete and relevant results are to be achieved. Without this knowledge of the vernacular of the ages past, modern researchers can find themselves 'reinventing the wheel' in looking for their answers.

Tożsamość kulturowa (religijna) a wybory tłumacza

This paper discusses the influence of cultural, especially religious, identity on the translator’s work on the basis of texts rendered in the sixteenth century. The study investigates levels at which the translator interfered in the structure or meaning of the text. The texts analyzed can be distinctly divided into two groups. The first one comprises religious writings which had to be translated faithfully in order to render the meaning of the source text. In this case, the challenge for the translator was the lexis. On the one hand, due to the lack of equivalents of certain referents, the translator had to find a manner of rendering even those passages that described issues which were totally unfamiliar to the Polish culture. On the other hand, they had to decide how to translate proper names. As proper names often both denoted and symbolized certain concepts or items, the translator could try to either render them with Polish appellatives which would reflect their meaning or leave them in the source language. Moreover, the translation was also marked with the style of the source text and the use of language resources. In order to illustrate the issue, the paper presents examples of how sixteenth century translators dealt with finding appropriate linguistic devices to properly render both the meaning and the form of the source text.The other, entirely different, type of translator’s work was rendering a text which was significantly dissimilar to their culture and religion. In this respect, the paper includes an analysis of selected passages from the Latin textbook entitled Ex P. Terentii comediis Latinissimae colloquiorum formulae..., which had the form of phrases and whose foreign part was based on excerpts from Terence’s comedies. The study presents the translator’s interference in the meaning in order to minimize the discrepancy between the ancient polytheistic religion of the source text and the Christian beliefs of the translator. The examples presented in the paper lead to the conclusion that the translator’s religion and cultural awareness had considerable influence on their conscious decisions to shape the target text in respect of lexis, grammar, style, and meaning.

Introduction to Latin. Second Edition by SUSAN C. SHELMERDINE

254 BOOK REVIEWS of civil war in the Bellum Civile. Less convincing, though, is the chapter’s final section, where Dinter quotes at length Mediaeval and Renaissance sources that supplement the abrupt ending of Lucan’s epic. Connections between this section and the rest of the chapter are tenuous at best and, in the absence of any formal conclusion, these last ten pages leave Dinter’s own analysis feeling somewhat “open-ended.” Such disunity sadly characterizes Dinter’s monograph overall; it is difficult to see how the topic of each individual chapter relates to any other, not least because Dinter links his ideas at a metaphorical rather than literal level, which occasionally results in him placing undue weight on the concept of “anatomy.” The book also contains some typographical errors, of which I list the most glaring: “I am” for iam (146); “vigils” for vigiles (71 n. 90); repeated translation in nn. 90 and 91 (71); “in” for “is” (99 n. 56); a translation that exceeds the quotation from Caesar Civ.1.7.1 (135). The presence of such errors is a great pity because, alongside the disjointed argument, they mar a study that displays strong potential and could,ultimately,have had a lotto offer. ERICA BEXLEY The Australian National University, erica.bexley@anu.edu.au * * * Introduction to Latin. Second Edition. By SUSAN C. SHELMERDINE. Newburyport, MA: Focus Publishing/R. Pullins Company, 2013. Pp. xvi + 376. Paper,$34.95. ISBN 978-1-58510-390-4. The many users of Shelmerdine’s introductory Latin textbook will welcome this new edition. It retains the good qualities of the first and revised editions, and also introduces some improvements. The second edition is again arranged in 32 chapters and can be covered in two 12-week semesters with a class meeting four times per week. In a short preface to the second edition Shelmerdine details the changes she has introduced. It is clear that she has responded to criticism of aspects of her first edition. She has integrated the changes in a sensible way. Thus the passive voice is introduced earlier, as are participles and the subjunctive. These changes will enable students to come to grips with more complex texts earlier and thus provide more reading practice in the last weeks of the course. Such practice is BOOK REVIEWS 255 offered. The last three chapters omit translation-into-Latin exercises and concentrate on reading Latin. More reading practice comes in four “Reading Chapters” where some of the continuous passages have comprehension questions. These chapters recapitulate the work in the preceding chapters and contain exercises involving derivatives as well as Latin phrases and abbreviations still used in English. Overall the approach remains as in the first edition: each chapter contains explanations of morphology and syntax as well as exercises. The exercises are still mostly translation from Latin or from English to Latin, butmanyof the sentences are taken from Latin authors (sources listed on 302–6) and thus students are gradually familiarized with the style of ancient authors and spared the artificial constructions of many introductory Latin textbooks. The number of other exercises where students are to supply endings or to identify agreement, case usage or parts of speech has been increased. The new vocabulary introduced in each chapter is again at the end of the chapter, but is followed by an additional section on derivatives. This aspect of learning Latin was confined to the “Reading” or revision chapters of the earlier edition and will be of use to students in memorizing meanings by linking them to English. Another welcome addition is the increased (from 38 to 48) number of “Readings.” These passages of “real” Latin from Classical authors, (the sources are indicated on pp. 301–2) are initially adapted to suit the level of the student, but later presented with minimal editing. These passages are very valuable in preparing students for the transition to the next level of Latin where they will probably be reading complete works of unadapted Latin. I have been teaching beginners’ Latin to university students for more than forty years and Shelmerdine’s new edition is the best work I have come across for introducing students within one academic year to...