Overview

This collection of articles by leading scholars focuses on Irish writing in Latin in the Renaissance and aims to rewrite Irish cultural history through recovery and analysis of Latin sources. This book renders accessible for the first time the vastly important Irish contribution to the counter-reformation, to European Renaissance and baroque literature in Latin and to the intellectual culture of European Latinity. The ethnic, cultural and religious divisions within Ireland produced a divided Latin writing and reading community. The Latin language became the medium in which the Catholic Church operated. When Christianity took root in Ireland so too did Latin. It became one of the principal languages of Ireland for over a thousand years resulting in over one thousand books being published by Irish authors. In order to convey the idiosyncrasies of Gaelic culture in the language of European scholarship to an international audience, Irish authors had to engage in a process of cultural translation. Many were Catholic exiles who attempted to promote an alternative to the English colonial narrative being written by domestic scholars. Some writers felt compelled to defend their country's reputation as a result of defamatory comments made by other writers. Articles include a detailed reconstruction of a feud with Scottish historians about the identity of medieval 'Scotia' as they claimed that it referred to Scotland rather than Ireland. Other articles include a contextual study of the political epic poem Ormonius , an examination of the major Latinist Richard Stanihurst and an evaluation of the literature of Catholic exile.

Full Product Details

9781859184530

Table of Contents

Reviews

This collection of essays is an important contribution to Neo-Latin studies, and has a full scholary apparatus of notes and references. This important book uncovers an Ireland of confident aristocrats and intellectuals, effective combatants in one or another war of words, not starving and dispossed peasants. For that reason alone, it would be a valuable contribution to the history of Ireland in the context of its immediate neighbors, but it also sheds a flood of light on Ireland's interrelations with other European countries.

This important book uncovers an Ireland of confident aristocrats and intellectuals, effective combatants in one or another war of words, not starving and dispossed peasants. For that reason alone, it would be a valuable contribution to the history of Ireland in the context of its immediate neighbors, but it also sheds a flood of light on Ireland's interrelations with other European countries.

Author Information

Jason Harris is in the Department of History at University College Cork. Keith Sidwell is in the Department of Classics, University College Cork

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available