The Role of Vernacular Proverbs in Latin Language Acquisition, c. 1200–1600

Abstract

This paper examines the continuities and discontinuities in language teaching between the Middle Ages and the early modern era by drawing attention to the role of bilingual Latin-vernacular proverb collections in premodern education, a subject that has hitherto been neglected in the historiography of linguistics. The focus is on bilingual collections that are of Dutch origin. The paper aims to show that there was an active culture of teaching Latin through vernacular proverbs in Western Europe from the 11th century to the 17th century. After presenting some collections and surveying the arguments in favour of classroom use, it investigates the impact of humanism and the reformation on proverb-based teaching.