Latin Proficiency

The Latin reading exam is a combination of straight translating with grammatical identifications and close exercises—that is, both translation and precise grammatical recognition.

Students should prepare the following texts:

  • From the Vulgate, Luke
  • From the Vulgate, Song of Songs (see pp. xvi–xxxv in E. Ann Matter, The Voice of My Beloved: The Song of Songs in Western Medieval Christianity (Philadelphia, 1990).)
  • From Bede, Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum, especially section on ealdorman and the sparrow
  • From John of Salisbury, any section of the Metalogicon or the Policraticus
  • From Hildegard of Bingen, Symphonia, with an introduction, translation, and commentary by Barbara Newman (Ithaca, 1988), pp. 128–31): ‘O virga ac diadema’