LA 1100 · Trivium: The School of Grammar — Module 5: Reading an Author

Led by Aelius Donatus Simulacrum

The last module of the school, teaching nothing new. Four modules of apparatus deployed at once on a continuous text, in the tradition's own order — frame, then form, then sense.

1. Module 5

   Reading an Author

   Led by Aelius Donatus Simulacrum

   The question

   Eight sittings, and no new apparatus. You begin with the *accessus*

   Outcome

   The student can read a passage of a Latin author in the tradition's

   Sub-units

   1. ○ 5.1 The Accessus: The Frame Before the Line Open this unit → ✓ ↻
   2. ○ 5.2 The Order of Explanation Open this unit → ✓ ↻
   3. ○ 5.3 Metre and the Settling of Ambiguity Open this unit → ✓ ↻
   4. ○ 5.4 The Partitiones Drill Open this unit → ✓ ↻
   5. ○ 5.5 Choosing Between Readings Open this unit → ✓ ↻
   6. ○ 5.6 Restraint: What the Text Licenses Open this unit → ✓ ↻
   7. ○ 5.7 A Passage Worked Entire Open this unit → ✓ ↻
   8. ○ 5.8 Where Grammar Ends Open this unit → ✓ ↻
   Begin the course → Print certificate of completion

   Practice scenarios

   The Line That Will Not Scan

   You are preparing a passage for a class tomorrow. One line will not scan. The manuscripts offer two readings: the one in your text, which is metrically impossible, and a variant in a later copy, which scans perfectly and is duller. A colleague suggests a third possibility of his own devising which scans, is in no manuscript, and is rather beautiful. The class is in the morning.

   Your goals

   • Establish that the received reading really is impossible, and by what
   • Weigh the attested variant against it, naming the grounds and their order
   • Decide what to do with the conjecture, and say why
   • Determine what you will actually tell the class, since you must tell them
   • something
   • Say whether "the text is uncertain here" is an acceptable thing to teach

   Practise this scenario →