Songs from the Carmina Burana: An Intermediate Medieval Latin Reader

This book provides vocabulary and commentary to 20 Medieval Latin poems/ songs from the collection known as the Carmina Burana, the most important surviving compilation of Medieval Latin secular verse from the European Middle Ages. Although the selection of these 20 works from the more than 250 pieces still extant is a personal one, examples from the three most important of the Carmina’s four main thematic groups are included: moral/satirical, love, and tavern life.The notes give the Classical Latin equivalents of all Medieval Latin forms found in these texts, indicate the occasional differences from Classical Latin grammatical usage, explicate certain syntactical and grammatical aspects that may be challenging for intermediate students, point out some (not all!) of the various literary/rhetorical figures and tropes that are employed, and supply information on historical, social, cultural, and literary issues raised by these works. In order to encourage reading of the texts out loud (an essential component of these lyrics’ poetic and musical essence, and one that often works hand-in-glove with the literary/rhetorical figures and tropes used), a section of the introduction is devoted to the various types of meter encountered, with special emphasis on those of an accentual-rhythmical nature, since these are not encountered in Classical Latin verse.