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‘“What shalt thou do when thou hast an english to make into Latin?” The Proverb Collection of Cambridge, St John’s College, MS F.26’

Bellis, Joanna; Bridges, Venetia

‘“What shalt thou do when thou hast an english to make into Latin?” The Proverb Collection of Cambridge, St John’s College, MS F.26’ Thumbnail


Authors

Joanna Bellis



Abstract

This article considers proverbs used as translation sentences, in the context of the teaching of Latin in the medieval schoolroom. Its enquiry focuses in particular on one folio of such latinitates, in Cambridge, St. John's College, MS F.26 (with further discussion of Cambridge, University Library MS Additional 2830). Its argument concerns, first, the question of what happens to the nature of proverbial wisdom when modulated from the (supposedly) oral, vernacular, folk context of its primary application, to the secondary (supposedly) written, Latinate, authoritative context of the classroom; when common, workaday wisdom shares the pedagogical page with Cato. Second, it extrapolates from this example to trouble the assumptions that still cling so tenaciously to this linguistic binary, arguing that presuppositions that Latin was not oral, vernacular, or homespun, or conversely that English was not written, authoritative, or bookish, are spurious. Finally, it considers the same proverbs that appear here as translation sentences when they are incorporated elsewhere into poetry, pondering the comparable ways in which that genre used them to construct authority, vernacularity, and orality.

Citation

Bellis, J., & Bridges, V. (2015). ‘“What shalt thou do when thou hast an english to make into Latin?” The Proverb Collection of Cambridge, St John’s College, MS F.26’. Studies in philology, 112(1), 68-92. https://doi.org/10.1353/sip.2015.0008

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date May 5, 2014
Online Publication Date Jan 28, 2015
Publication Date 2015-01
Deposit Date Oct 6, 2017
Publicly Available Date Jan 29, 2021
Journal Studies in philology
Print ISSN 0039-3738
Electronic ISSN 1543-0383
Publisher The University of North Carolina Press
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 112
Issue 1
Pages 68-92
DOI https://doi.org/10.1353/sip.2015.0008
Public URL https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1347678
Publisher URL https://www.jstor.org/stable/24392048

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Copyright Statement
From Studies in Philology, Volume 112(1) 68-92 . Copyright © 2015 Studies in Philology by the University of North Carolina Press. Used by permission of the publisher. https://www.uncpress.org





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