The Role of Latin Language in the Renaissance Period

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Scholars and authors soon became aware that Latin was no longer a growing, vital language, and many sensed that the future lay in the vernacular languages. Michel de Montaigne, who had been trained from his earliest youth to speak and write in Latin, nevertheless chose French to compose his Essays, and in so doing, he helped to extend its possibilities for literary expression. These heated debates reveal to us the excitement surrounding the possibilities the native languages offered. The efforts of humanism in defense of pure Latin style produced a para doxical effect, since the language was no longer a living and expanding language as it had been throughout most of the Middle Ages when new vocabulary and usages had been constantly introduced over time.The rise of native forms of Italian, French, Spanish, English, and German consequently began to inspire many disputes about the literary styles that were appropriate for these languages. In every country authors debated which dialect of the language and which syntax and vocabulary were best suited for writing in French, German, or English. The new nectar writers like Castiglione hoped to squeeze from national languages captivated authors even more as the sixteenth century progressed. In England, the great achievements of the Elizabethan theater had a similar effect in raising the literary standard of English, and in Spain, the authors and playwrights of the emerging Golden Age fulfilled a similar function for modern Spanish. Latin was far from moribund by the end of the Renaissance; it remained an essential language for the educated for centuries to follow. But the quality of prose and poetry Renaissance authors composed in the various national languages helped to assure their further development as literary languages, even as the styles these languages used in subsequent centuries often continued to pay tribute to the Renaissance and its debates over syntax, structure, and vocabulary. The efforts of humanism in defense of pure Latin style produced a para doxical effect, since the language was no longer a living and expanding language as it had been throughout most of the Middle Ages when new vocabulary and usages had been constantly introduced over time.The rise of native forms of Italian, French, Spanish, English, and German consequently began to inspire many disputes about the literary styles that were appropriate for these languages. In every country authors debated which dialect of the language and which syntax and vocabulary were best suited for writing in French, German, or English. The new nectar writers like Castiglione hoped to squeeze from national languages captivated authors even more as the sixteenth century progressed. In England, the great achievements of the Elizabethan theater had a similar effect in raising the literary standard of English, and in Spain, the authors and playwrights of the emerging Golden Age fulfilled a similar function for modern Spanish. Latin was far from moribund by the end of the Renaissance; it remained an essential language for the educated for centuries to follow. But the quality of prose and poetry Renaissance authors composed in the various national languages helped to assure their further development as literary languages, even as the styles these languages used in subsequent centuries often continued to pay tribute to the Renaissance and its debates over syntax, structure, and vocabulary.

In considering the role of the arts in Renaissance culture, we can largely bypass these distinctions between what is an art and what is a craft. In the eighteenth century an increasingly formal system of aesthetics also drew a firm distinction between the “Fine Arts” and the “crafts.In 1300 most Europeanslived in cities that resembled fortresses more than the spaces modern people would associate with urban life. Poor or inadequate sanitation was usually the norm, and smoke from family hearths filled the cities. The largest public buildings in a medieval city were almost always churches, and around 1300, the Gothic style—notable for its height and intricate complexity dominated their construction. Numerous discussions of masterpieces abound in the chapters that follow, the traditional preserve of literary scholars and of art, theater, and music historians.

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