Donatus’ Ars grammatica and educational practices of Late Antiquity: Sergius — Cledonius — Pompeius

The article is based on the analysis of Donatus’ Ars grammatica and the texts of his closest commentators — Sergius (sometimes called as Ps.-Cassiodorus), Cledonius and Pompeus. The purpose of this paper is to reconstruct the beginnings of a new educational pro-cess (5t...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Maya Petrova
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Hypothekai 2019-06-01
Series:Hypothekai
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Online Access:http://www.hypothekai.ru/images/060-086_PetrovaMS-33.pdf
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Summary:The article is based on the analysis of Donatus’ Ars grammatica and the texts of his closest commentators — Sergius (sometimes called as Ps.-Cassiodorus), Cledonius and Pompeus. The purpose of this paper is to reconstruct the beginnings of a new educational pro-cess (5th century), rooted in Western European grammatical science in the early Middle Ages. In particular, the content of Sergius’ grammatical fragments, named De littera, de syllaba, de pedibus, de accentibus, de distinctione [“ On the letter, syllable, verse feet, ac-cents and position”], Cledonius’ Ars and Ars secunda and Pompey’s Commentum artis Donati of Pompey is under consideration. The problem of authorship of grammatical texts Explanationum in Artem Donati and Commentarium de oratione et de octo partibus orationis [“Commentary on speech and eight parts of speech”], which were circulated under different names — Sergius, Servius, Cassiodorus and Ps.-Cassiodorus — is discussed. Through a comparative analy-sis, the similarities and differences between the texts which are under consideration with respect to Donatus’ Ars grammatica are revealed. It is shown how the grammar of Late Antique in the 5th century gradually became less strict (in comparison with its authoritative model), how it was adapted to the needs of the new time. It is concluded that, on the one hand, the methods chosen by Sergius (Ps.-Cassiodorus), Cledonius and Pompey for the grammatical description and explana-tion of parts of the speech of Donatus’ Ars grammatica were differed sharply from the methods of presentation by Donatus himself. But, on the other hand, Donatus’ commentators could not manage to create any new grammar in the 5th century.
ISSN:2587-7127
2587-7127