MorkTheFiddle wrote:Thanks for the reference to the Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantiae and to Theodorus of Gaza's paraphrasis. I look forward to checking them out.
My pleasure!
MorkTheFiddle wrote:Medieval Latin has a great attraction for me, but the total amount is so daunting that I never know where to start. Any hints would be appreciated.
The readers published by Sidwell or Beeson can help you there. Beeson is mostly just the texts (a lot of them stories) but Sidwell has introductions for each period and author, as well as many notes for difficult passages.
Also, here is a list of works I have read (some only partially) and have enjoyed. Maybe some of these will pique your interest. I haven't linked to a copy of the Latin text for all of these, let me know if help is needed to locate a copy.
HistoryGregory of Tours,
Historia Francorum (5-6th c. Frankish affairs, full of sound and fury, the Latin is probably the least classical of all the authors listed here)
Bede,
Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (British history up to the 730s. Very nice, gentle style)
Paulus Diaconus,
Historia Langobardorum (especially the beginning with Germanic myths)
Liutprand of Cremona,
Relatio (Liutprand's embassy to Constantinople told by himself. He is so full of himself and despises the Byzantines to such a degree that it's all very entertaining)
Gesta Francorum (the First Crusade narrated by a participant, simple style)
William of Tyre,
Historia (history of the Middle East since Muhammad to the 1180s. William was bishop of Tyre and lived in the Crusader states)
William of Newburgh,
Historia rerum Anglicarum (11-12th c. English affairs)
StoriesJacques of Vitry,
Exempla (moral anecdotes used to illustrate the point made in a sermon)
Caesarius of Heisterbach,
Dialogus miraculorum (hundreds of miracle stories)
Petrus Alfonsus,
Disciplina Clericalis (Arabic tales translated by a Spanish Jewish convert)
Alexander Romance (Latin version of a Greek fan fiction about Alexander the Great)
AutobiographyAbelard,
Historia Calamitatum (12th c. foremost philosopher's take on his own life. Maybe mostly know nowadays for his love affair with Heloise and having undergone castration as a result)
LettersBernard of ClairvauxSermonsBernard of Clairvaux,
Sermones super Cantica CanticorumTravel literaturePlan Carpin,
Historia Mongalorum (a 13th c. account of an embassy to Mongolia)
Felix Fabri,
Evagatorium (a veeery detailed and vivid account of the author's pilgrimage to the Holy land in the late 15th c. Online at
Gutenberg thanks to a member of the Textkit forum)
PoetryCarmina Burana (love/drinking/satirical poems)
Nigellus,
Speculum stultorum (a donkey is on a quest to obtain a longer tail)
Waltharius (epic poem on a Visigothic hero)