Jump to content

Hiberno-Latin

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hiberno-Latin
RegionIreland
Era6-10th centuries
Early forms
Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3None(mis)
GlottologNone
IETFla-IE

Hiberno-Latin,also calledHisperic Latin,was a learned style ofliterary Latinfirst used and subsequently spread byIrish monksduring the period from the sixth century to the tenth century.

Vocabulary and influence

[edit]

Hiberno-Latin was notable for its curiously learned vocabulary. While neitherHebrewnorGreekwas widely known in Western Europe during this period, odd words from these sources, as well as from Irish andBritishsources, were added to Latin vocabulary by these authors. It has been suggested that the unusual vocabulary of the poems was the result of the monks learning Latin words fromdictionariesandglossarieswhich did not distinguish between obscure and common words; unlike many others in Western Europe at the time, the Irish monks did not speak a language descended from Latin. During the sixth and seventh centuries AD, Irish monasticism spread through Christian Europe; Irish monks who founded thesemonasteriesoften brought Hiberno-Latin literary styles with them.

Notable authors whose works contain something of the Hiberno-Latin spirit include StColumba,StColumbanus,StAdamnan,andVirgilius Maro Grammaticus.StGildas,the Welsh author of theDe Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae,is also credited with theLorica,orBreastplate,anapotropaiccharmagainstevilthat is written in a curiously learned vocabulary; this too probably relates to an education in the Irish styles of Latin.John Scotus Eriugenawas probably one of the last Irish authors to write Hiberno-Latin wordplay. StHildegard of Bingenpreservesan unusual Latin vocabularythat was in use inher convent,and which appears in a few of her poems; this invention may also be influenced by Hiberno-Latin.[citation needed]

Hisperica Famina

[edit]

The style reaches its peak in theHisperica Famina,which means roughly "Western orations"; theseFaminaare rhetorical descriptive poems couched in a kind of free verse.Hispericais understood as aportmanteauword combiningHibernia,Ireland, andHesperides,the semi-legendary "Western Isles" that may have been inspired by theAzoresor theCanary Islands;the coinage is typical of the wordplay used by these authors. A brief excerpt from a poem on the dawn from theHisperica Faminashows the Irish poet decorating his verses with Greek words:

One usage ofHesperiain classical times was as a synonym for Italy, and it is noticeable that some of the vocabulary and stylistic devices of these pieces originated not among the Irish, but with the priestly and rhetorical poets who flourished within the world dominated ecclesiastically by Rome (especially in Italy, Gaul, Spain and Africa) between the fourth and the sixth centuries, such asJuvencus,Avitus of Vienne,Dracontius,EnnodiusandVenantius Fortunatus.(Thus the very wordfamen,pluralfamina– a pseudo-archaic coinage from the classical verbfari,'to speak' – is first recorded in the metrical GospelsEvangeliorum libriofJuvencus.Similarly, the word-arrangement often follows the sequenceadjective 1 - adjective 2 - verb - noun 1 - noun 2,known as the "golden line",a pattern used to excess in the too-regular prosody of these poets; the first line quoted above is an example.) The underlying idea, then, would be to cast ridicule on these Roman-oriented writers by blending their stylistic tricks with incompetent scansion and applying them to unworthy subjects.[citation needed]

Altus Prosator

[edit]

On a much more intelligible level, the sixth-centuryabecedarian hymnAltus prosatorshows many of the features of Hiberno-Latin: the wordprosator,the "first sower" meaningcreator,refers to God using an unusualneologism.[1]The text of the poem also contains the wordiduma,meaning "hands;" this is probably from Hebrewידים‎ (yadaim,"two hands" ). The poem is also an extendedalphabeticalacrostic,another example of the wordplay typical of Hiberno-Latin. Irish (but not Continental) manuscripts traditionally attributed the poem to the sixth-century Irish mysticSaint Columba,but this attribution is doubtful.[2]Marking with an asterisk (*) words that are learned, neologisms, unusually spelled, or unusual in the context they stand, the poem begins:

Similar usage

[edit]
  • In Italian,Francesco Colonnacreated a similar style (in prose), packed with neologisms drawn from Hebrew, Greek and Latin, for his allegoryHypnerotomachia Poliphili(1499).
  • The SpanishGolden CenturypoetLuis de Góngorawas the champion ofculteranismo(sometimes calledgongorismin English), a style that subjected Spanish to abstruse Latinate neologism, obscure allusions to Classical mythology and violenthyperbaton.
  • In English,euphuism– a 16th-century tendency named after the character Euphues who appears in two works by its chief practitionerJohn Lyly– shows similar qualities.

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^Ed. and trans. by John Carey,King of Mysteries: Early Irish Religious Writings,rev. edn (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2000), pp. 29-49.
  2. ^John Carey,King of Mysteries: Early Irish Religious Writings,rev. edn (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2000), p. 29.

Bibliography

[edit]
  • James Carney,Medieval Irish LyricsBerkeley, 1967.
  • Thomas Owen Clancy and Gilbert Márkus,Iona: the Earliest Poetry of a Celtic MonasteryEdinburgh, 1995.
  • Michael Herren, editor,The Hisperica Famina.(Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies,Toronto)
    • Volume 1, 1974.ISBN0-88844-031-6
    • Volume 2, 1987.ISBN0-88844-085-5
  • Andy Orchard, "TheHisperica faminaas Literature "University of Toronto, 2000.
  • Harris, Jason (2009).Making Ireland Roman: Irish Neo-Latin Writers and the Republic of Letters.Cork University Press.ISBN978-1859184530.
[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hiberno-Latin&oldid=1230272544"