This MedLibrary.org supplementary page on Ars grammatica is provided directly from the open source Wikipedia as a service to our readers. Please see the note below on authorship of this content, as well as the Wikipedia usage guidelines. To search for other content from our encyclopedia supplement, please use the form below:
Related Sponsors
An Ars grammatica is a generic or proper title for surveys of Latin Grammar.
Extant works known as Ars grammatica have been written by
The most famous Ars Grammatica since Late Antiquity into the modern day has been that composed by Donatus.
Donatus's Ars Grammatica
Two Ars Grammatica circulate under the name Donatus. The first, the Ars Minor, is a brief overview of the eight parts of speech: noun, pronoun, verb, adverb, participle, conjunction, preposition, and interjection. ( Nomen, pronomen, verbum, adverbium, participium, coniunctio, praepositio, interiectio). The text is done entirely in a question and answer format. "How many numbers does a noun have?" "Two: singular and plural."
Donatus's Ars Major is only a little longer, but on a much more elevated plane. It is a list of stylistic faults and graces, including tropes such as metaphor, synecdoche, allegory, and sarcasm. Donatus also includes schemes such as zeugma and anaphora.
Diomedes's Ars Grammatica
The Ars grammatica or De Oratione et Partibus Orationis et Vario Genere Metrorum libri III by Diomedes is a Latin grammatical treatise. Diomedes wrote probably in the late 300s BC. The treatise is dedicated to a certain Athanasius.
- Book I the eight parts of speech;
- Book II the elementary ideas of grammar and of style;
- Book III poetry, quantity, and meters.
The third book on poetry is particularly valuable, containing extracts from Suetonius's De poetica. This book contains one of the most complete lists of types of dactylic hexameters in antiquity, including the teres versus, which may (or may not) be the so-called "golden line."
The Ars of Diomedes still exists in a complete form (although probably abridged). It was first published in a collection of Latin Grammarians printed at Venice by Nic. Jenson, about 1476. The best edition of Diomedes's Ars Grammatica is in H. Keil's Grammatici Latini, vol I.
External links
- On-line Latin texts of major Latin grammarians at the Corpus Grammaticorum Latinorum
- scanned page of William Smith (lexicographer)
- Latin texts of all of Aelius Donatus, including the Ars Minor and all the parts of the Ars Major
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 4 November 2008, at 07:02.
Wikipedia Authorship and Review
Wikipedia content provided here is not reviewed directly by MedLibrary.org. Wikipedia content is authored by an open community of volunteers and is not produced by or in any way affiliated with MedLibrary.org.
Wikipedia Usage Guidelines
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article on "Ars grammatica".
The URL for this specific entry is:
All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details). Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.