Little known today, some of the earliest novels ever written in modern times, were composed in Latin for an international audience.
Indeed, the history of the modern novel large in large part in the development of the novella as a descendent of the ancient Roman writers, composed in a deliberate attempt to re-invent the ancient format last popularised by the ancient Greeks and Romans.
A large number of these works exist - the readership is now miniscule, and indeed, most of the works and their authors are long forgotten.
For example, John Barclay was once one of the most celebrated authors in England in his generation, but as his output was in Latin, not English, we do not remember him.
His works included:
Argenis (1621) available also in an illustrated edition . This book was effectively the number one best-seller of the entire seventeenth century.
This book was the first well-constructed and popular novel written since the fall of Rome.
Which just goes to show, that a book can be famous for a very long time, and still be utterly forgotten by everyone except for a small group of neo-Latin scholars and historians.
It is available in a modern reprint with a facing English translation.
Satyricon (The first satirical 'Roman a Clef' (a novel in which real people or events appear with invented names.) ever written.)
Other Latin novels are:
Mundus Alter et Idem by Joseph Hall, 1605
Reipublicae Christianopolitanae Descriptio by Johannes Andreae , 1619
Civitatis Solis by Campanella, 1623
Utopia by Jacobus Bidermann, 1640
Scydromedia by Antonius Legrand 1699
Nicolai Klimii Iter Subterranneum 1741
Nova Solyma by Samuel Gott. This Latin novel was previously ascribed to the poet Milton, and indeed, Google Books, in some editions, has it catalogued with Milton as the author.
Psyche Cretica by Ludovicus Praschius
Indeed, the history of the modern novel large in large part in the development of the novella as a descendent of the ancient Roman writers, composed in a deliberate attempt to re-invent the ancient format last popularised by the ancient Greeks and Romans.
A large number of these works exist - the readership is now miniscule, and indeed, most of the works and their authors are long forgotten.
For example, John Barclay was once one of the most celebrated authors in England in his generation, but as his output was in Latin, not English, we do not remember him.
His works included:
Argenis (1621) available also in an illustrated edition . This book was effectively the number one best-seller of the entire seventeenth century.
This book was the first well-constructed and popular novel written since the fall of Rome.
Which just goes to show, that a book can be famous for a very long time, and still be utterly forgotten by everyone except for a small group of neo-Latin scholars and historians.
It is available in a modern reprint with a facing English translation.
Satyricon (The first satirical 'Roman a Clef' (a novel in which real people or events appear with invented names.) ever written.)
Other Latin novels are:
Mundus Alter et Idem by Joseph Hall, 1605
Reipublicae Christianopolitanae Descriptio by Johannes Andreae , 1619
Civitatis Solis by Campanella, 1623
Utopia by Jacobus Bidermann, 1640
Scydromedia by Antonius Legrand 1699
Nicolai Klimii Iter Subterranneum 1741
Nova Solyma by Samuel Gott. This Latin novel was previously ascribed to the poet Milton, and indeed, Google Books, in some editions, has it catalogued with Milton as the author.
Psyche Cretica by Ludovicus Praschius
No comments:
Post a Comment