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Pedantic quibble (but why not be pedantic here?): "Mit Brennender Sorge" was not in Latin. Whether it was the first encyclical not to be in Latin, I can't say.
by cafard 11y ago
Pedantic quibble (but why not be pedantic here?): "Mit Brennender Sorge" was not in Latin. Whether it was the first encyclical not to be in Latin, I can't say.
Also "Llewellyn is a professor at Wyoming Catholic College, and belongs to that select group of professors who consider themselves first and foremost teachers." It seems to me that such a field ought to make for that--there is always something to be gained by reexamining older texts, but it's not as if unknown books of Livy are flowing out of obscure libraries, as in Erasmus's day.
- akuchling 11y agoVictor Davis Hanson made a similar point in the book "Who Killed Classical Studies": every significant text has been analyzed in depth, and the remaining texts still being found are minor. (Even if a new play by Aeschylus or book by Livy turns up, it's not likely to change what we know very much.) The historical picture is pretty complete; and the archaeological details being found are mostly refining that picture, not overturning it. Counterargument: the Antikythera mechanism. There could well be more archaeological surprises, or analyses that open up an entirely new aspect.
- jthnews 11y agoYes, a lot of classical scholarship stands the test of time and, once done, need not be redone. On the other hand, a classicist's job has always involved more interpretation than discovery. A brief look at the classical scholarship from 100 years will probably convince you that interpretation is the kind of thing that needs to be updated from time to time.
- schoen 11y agoAlso, "Laudato si'" was eventually translated into Latin (but it was published without an official Latin translation at first). According to Wikipedia, the first encyclical that was not written in Latin was "Non abbiamo bisogno", from 1931. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non_abbiamo_bisogno https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non_abbiamo_bisogno Both "Non abbiamo bisogno" and "Mit brennender Sorge" criticized (what were to be) Axis governments in their own languages. Maybe that was somehow thought to be a special case.