Greek Donatus and the Study of Greek in the Renaissance

• Autores: Federica Ciccolella
• Localización: International journal of the classical tradition, ISSN 1073-0508, Vol. 12, Nº 1, 2005, págs. 1-24
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • This article analyzes the teaching of Greek in the Renaissance through the Greek Donatus or Pylê, a translation of Ianua, the elementary Latin grammar book used in medieval schools. Conceived as a tool for Greeks who wanted to learn Latin, Pylê became a textbook for Westerners interested in learning Greek. The text is in Greek and definitions and paradigms are given correctly, but Greek grammar is often modified to fit into the Latin grammatical categories. Students, who had learned Latin on Ianua, perhaps memorized Pylê in full and learned Greek by ¿superimposing¿ the Greek onto the Latin text.

    The extant four versions of Pylê are all connected with Venice and/or its colony, Crete. This tradition of Greek studies, certainly inferior to Florentine scholarship, is still important in the cultural history of the Renaissance