Overview

A highly original and accessible history of Latin between the sixteenth and twentieth centuries that explores how Latin came to dominate the civic and sacred worlds of Europe and, arguably, the entire western world.

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9781859844021

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Reviews

Latin is dead and this book is its epitaph ... it is the merit and interest of Waquet's survey that she finds Latin not only deployed for the liturgy, but also to describe things carnal, pornographic, or otherwise shameful. -- Daily Telegraph ... richly researched and delightful... with scholars of Waquet's generosity and ability, the old language might yet have a future. - New Criterion Waquet.s wonderful, readable book (in Howe's fine translation) provides an intellectual history of the Latin language ... Waquet memorabluy charts Latin's reception in scholarly, comic, tender and exhaustive detail through learned, literary and popular sources. - Choice ... the book is valuable if for no other reason than for the historical light is sheds on contemporary debates over the value of a 'traditional' education - and for reminding us that a classical education is sometimes more about class than about education. - Washington Times ...detailed and wide-ranging... - Los Angeles Times Book Review ... a lucid , learned retelling of the fortunes of the Latin language in the modern era. A scholarly work, this will nonetheless appeal to general readers as well. - History ...[a] fascinating and lively survey of the place of Latin western culture during the past 400 years. - Independent It is a wonderful survey of the uses to which we have put Latin. - A. N. Wilson ... an eloquent obituary... - Spectator And for something completely differently serious, read part of Europe's future in part of its past: the fascinating Latin: or the Empire of a Sign. - A.C. Grayling, Guardian, Summer Choice 2002 A splendid book: original in method, suggestive in argument, and a pleasure to read. -- London Review of Books

Author Information

Françoise Waquet is director of research emeritus at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in Paris. Latin, or the Empire of a Sign is the opening volume in a highly praised sequence of books on the social worlds of intellectuals, continued most recently with Une histoire émotionnelle du savoir (2019).

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