Latin Literature
The early 12th century saw a revival of the study of Latin classics, prose, and verse before and independent of the revival of Greek philosophy in Latin translation. The cathedral schools at Chartres, Orleans, and Canterbury were centers of Latin literature staffed by notable scholars. John of Salisbury, secretary at Canterbury, became the bishop of Chartres. He held Cicero in the highest regard in philosophy, language, and the humanities. Latin humanists possessed and read virtually all the Latin authors we have today--Ovid, Virgil, Terence, Horace, Seneca, Cicero. The exceptions were few--Tacitus, Livy, Lucretius. In poetry, Virgil was universally admired, followed by Ovid.
Like the earlier Carolingian revival, the 12th century Latin revival would not be permanent. While religious opposition to pagan Roman literature existed. Haskins argues that “it was not religion but logic” in particular “Aristotle’s New Logic toward the middle of century threw a heavy weight on the side of dialectic ...” at the expense of the letters, literature, oratory, and poetry of the Latin authors. The nascent universities would become Aristotelean centers displacing the Latin humanist heritage until its final revival by Petrarch in the 14th century.
Read more about this topic: Renaissance Of The 12th Century
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