Ad Infinitum: A Biography of Latin

( 2 )

All Available Formats + Editions

——

$10.19

NOOK Book

——

$10.19

Ad Infinitum: A Biography of Latin (eBook) Pub. Date: 5/26/2009 Publisher: Walker Books
$3.41

$10.94

Paperback

$3.41

$10.94

Ad Infinitum: A Biography of Latin (Reprint) Pub. Date: 11/11/2008 Publisher: Walker & Company
$0.99

——

Hardcover

$0.99

——

Ad Infinitum: A Biography of Latin Pub. Date: 11/13/2007 Publisher: Walker & Company

Customers Who Bought This Also Bought

Advertising

Overview

“An absorbing, scholarly account of the history of the Latin language, from its origins in antiquity to its afterlife in our own time...Ad Infinitum treats its readers with the dignity of Roman citizens.”—The Wall Street Journal

The Latin language has been the one constant in the cultural history of the West for more than two millennia. It has defined the way in which we express our thoughts, our faith, and our knowledge of how the world functions, its use echoing on in the law codes of half the world, in the terminologies of modern science, and, until forty years ago, in the liturgy of the Catholic Church. In his erudite and entertaining “biography,” Nicholas Ostler shows how and why Latin survived and thrived even as its creators and other languages failed. Originally the dialect of Rome and its surrounds, Latin supplanted its neighbors to become, by conquest and settlement, the language of all Italy, and then of Western Europe and North Africa. After the empire collapsed, spoken Latin re-emerged as a host of new languages, from Portuguese and Spanish in the west to Romanian in the east, while a knowledge of Latin lived on as the common code of European thought, and inspired the founders of Europe’s New World in the Americas. E pluribus unum. Illuminating the extravaganza of its past, Nicholas Ostler makes clear that, in a thousand echoes, Latin lives on, ad infinitum.

Editorial Reviews

William Grimes

…[a] lucid, erudite and elegant history of the language [Ostler] calls "the soul of Europe's civilization."
—The New York Times

Library Journal

In this delightfully rich book, Ostler, an Oxford-educated classicist with a Ph.D. in linguistics from MIT, thoroughly tackles the deep and complex history of the Latin language. He delves into the matrix of antique languages (Greek, Etruscan, Oscan) to uncover the context and relationships that a nascent and burgeoning Latin had with the multiplicity of Mediterranean languages existing at that time. In four parts, Ostler covers the origins and development of Latin in the Roman world, Latin's "taking over the church," its medieval continuation and fracturing into vernaculars, and a nuanced rebirth in the Renaissance and its legacy in the contemporary world. Incredibly well documented, with examples from antiquity to the modern era (such as Giuseppe Peano's "Latino sine flexione"-uninflected Latin as a world language), this may overexpose non-Latinists to great quantities of Latin prose and linguistic explanations, but for interested students, teachers, and scholars, it is a fabulous text. Recommended for public and academic libraries.
—Anthony J. Elia

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780802716798
Publisher: Walker & Company
Publication date: 11/11/2008
Edition description: Reprint
Pages: 400
Sales rank: 484,404
Product dimensions: 5.40 (w) x 8.20 (h) x 1.20 (d)

Meet the Author

Nicholas Ostler is the author of Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World. He is chairman of the Foundation for Endangered Languages (www.ogmios.org), a charity that supports the efforts of small communities worldwide to know and use their languages more. A scholar with a working knowledge of eighteen languages, Ostler holds an M.A. from Oxford University in Greek, Latin, philosophy, and economics, and a Ph.D in linguistics from MIT, where he studied under Noam Chomsky. He lives in England, in Roman Bath, on the hill where Ambrosius Aurelianus defeated the Saxons for a generation.

Praefatio     xi
A Latin World
Ad infinitum-An Empire Lived in Latin     3
Fons et origo-Latin's Kin     21
Sub rosa-Latin's Etruscan Stepmother     30
Cui bono?-Rome's Winning Ways     46
Excelsior-Looking Up to Greek     58
Felix coniunctio-A Partnership of Paragons     83
Latin Recruits
Urbi et orbi-Taking Over the Church     107
Vox populi vox dei-Latin as the Bond of Unity     116
Dies irae-Staying On     128
Ultra vires-Beyond the Limits of Empire     150
Worlds Built on Latin
Lapsus linguae-Incurable Romantics: Fractured Latin     159
Amor vincit omnia-Latin Lovers     177
Litterae humaniores-The Fruits of a Latin Education     190
Ex oriente lux-Sources of Higher Learning     207
Latin in a Vernacular World
Alter ego-Humanism and the Return of the Classics     233
Deus ex machina-Printing and the Profusion of Grammars     250
Novus orbis-Latin America     260
Decus et tutamen-Last Redoubts     278
Eheu fugaces-Latin's Decline     292
Sub specie aeternitatis-Latin Today     302
Notes on the Latin Tags in Chapter Headings     321
Etruscan Borrowings in Latin     323
Effects of Sound Changes on Latin Nouns and Verbs     327
Notes     331
Bibliography     359
Index     369

Customer Reviews

Average Rating 4

( 2 )

Rating Distribution

5 Star

(1)

4 Star

(0)

3 Star

(1)

2 Star

(0)

1 Star

(0)

Your Rating:

Review Guidelines

Tell the world what you think of this product.

Add Recommendations

Your Name: Create a Pen Name or Leave Anonymously

Barnes & Noble.com Review Rules

Our reader reviews allow you to share your comments on titles you liked, or didn't, with others. By submitting an online review, you are representing to Barnes & Noble.com that all information contained in your review is original and accurate in all respects, and that the submission of such content by you and the posting of such content by Barnes & Noble.com does not and will not violate the rights of any third party. Please follow the rules below to help ensure that your review can be posted.

Reviews by Our Customers Under the Age of 13

We highly value and respect everyone's opinion concerning the titles we offer. However, we cannot allow persons under the age of 13 to have accounts at BN.com or to post customer reviews. Please see our Terms of Use for more details.

What to exclude from your review:

Please do not write about reviews, commentary, or information posted on the product page. If you see any errors in the information on the product page, please send us an email.

Reviews should not contain any of the following:

- HTML tags, profanity, obscenities, vulgarities, or comments that defame anyone
- Time-sensitive information such as tour dates, signings, lectures, etc.
- Single-word reviews. Other people will read your review to discover why you liked or didn't like the title. Be descriptive.
- Comments focusing on the author or that may ruin the ending for others
- Phone numbers, addresses, URLs
- Pricing and availability information or alternative ordering information
- Advertisements or commercial solicitation

Reminder:

- By submitting a review, you grant to Barnes & Noble.com and its sublicensees the royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable right and license to use the review in accordance with the Barnes & Noble.com Terms of Use.
- Barnes & Noble.com reserves the right not to post any review -- particularly those that do not follow the terms and conditions of these Rules. Barnes & Noble.com also reserves the right to remove any review at any time without notice.
- See Terms of Use for other conditions and disclaimers.

Anonymous

Posted May 27, 2009

No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous

Posted December 13, 2009

No text was provided for this review.

If you find inappropriate content, please report it to Barnes & Noble