Geoffrey of Monmouth’s extraordinary epic poem Vita Merlini (“The Life of Merlin”, written in Classical hexameters) is a fascinating work set in a semi-mythological era of kings, prophets and madmen. […]
Category Archives: Later Latin
O quanta, qualia (Peter Abelard, 1079-1142) (contributed by Mark Walker)
This hymn employs an iambic rhythm in lines of twelve syllables (or half-lines of six syllables each if you prefer). Abelard was not only a brilliant scholar, he was also […]
Stabat Mater dolorosa (contributed by Mark Walker)
‘A supreme achievement of the Franciscan, and, indeed, of the religious verse of the Middle Ages,’ (according to F.J.E. Raby in his History of Christian Latin Poetry) the Stabat Mater […]
O Fortuna from the Carmina Burana collection (contributed by Mark Walker)
The various and mostly anonymous authors responsible for the collection of poems now known as the Carmina Burana were a motley assortment of disaffected monks, students and clerici vagrantes (‘wandering […]
Dies Irae – The Requiem Sequence (contributed by Mark Walker)
Attributed to Thomas de Celano (1190-1260), the Dies Iræ is arguably the most famous and most evocative Medieval Latin poem. It describes in vivid detail the Last Judgement, the summoning […]
Letter – Heloise (c.1100-1163) to Abelard (contributed by Mark Walker)
The story of the ardent love affair between fiery philosopher Peter Abelard and his brilliant young student Heloise has been preserved in their remarkable letters to each other: Abelard’s autobiographical […]
Latin Ode to the London Olympics (contributed by Bijan Omrani)
This Latin Ode to the London Olympics is written in Sapphics in imitation of Horace’s Carmen Saeculare. Horace’s original was written in honour of the Secular Games (Ludi Saeculares) a […]