Reading Medieval Latin

At times you, as someone using this book to start your journey into medieval latin, might wish for more footnotes or vocabulary, or find some choices strange (at least on first inspection), but this is a very good intro reader. Of course this is only a reader and you must already have read Wheelock's or reading latin or some such thing, also you may find Harkness or Schmitz handy, and likely Woodcock. This book is not as in depth as Betts and Franklin's poetry reader (which is good for in class instruction) but it is a very good value. It has a lot of passages to read in it and is well organized. There are also english intros that give background details on the poems or passages. So over all, it could be a little better but is worth buying, and if you take a medieval latin course in university, this is the book the passages will likely be from. The more you read this book the more you will like it (and it has the loch ness monster).

This is an excellent resource for students of medieval Latin. A particularly useful aspect of this reader is that Sidwell provides texts with thematic coherence in mind; thus in each section arranged according to period, texts are arranged according to particular topics (e.g. the Norman conquest; scholastic philosophy; courtly literature). His introductory notes are good, and provide not just an introduction to the period, but to the individual topics he's selected; and his texts are chosen to provide a coherent representative introduction to the primary sources for each topic. Thus, for example, those wishing to deal with the eleventh and twelfth century will find a selection from the most important texts on the crusades, the investiture conflict, the Norman conquest, and new developments in theology and philosophy (among other topics), along with concise but useful overviews of the issues involved; in each case, the texts and excerpts are put together to make some sort of sense in terms of content and relation to the larger issues, not just as examples of Latin. Sidwell also provides a brief glossary of specifically medieval vocabulary at the end of the book, along with with useful linguistic and historical notes, and extensive vocabulary and grammar aids for each of the texts.

Sidwell's anthology provides the Latin student with thorough notes, historical background to the authors, and medieval shifts in pronunciation and spelling. Occasionally Sidwell misses possible interpretations of passages or provides word-meanings that don't necessarily work well in a passage's context. These shorfalls, however, are hardly significant. Sidwell's book is an enjoyable and worthwhile text.