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Latin Inscriptions in Oxford

For six centuries following its foundation, Latin was the main language written and spoken at the University of Oxford. Today, one can still find Latin inscriptions carved into many of its monuments, as well those of the city, dating from the medieval period to the present day. But few of us can discern what all of these inscriptions mean.
           
For Latin Inscriptions in Oxford, Reginald H. Adams, a former scholar at St. John’s College, University of Oxford, has translated a selection of Latin inscriptions. Among them, he finds a great many tributes and memorials—to Queen Anne, Cardinal Wolsey, and T. E. Lawrence, but also to Irene Frude, a “most kindly landlady” on Little Clarendon who “provided each day for almost thirty-five years enormous breakfasts.” Some of the inscriptions offer concise commentary—“Without experiment, it is not possible to know anything adequately.” While others are instructive like the Rhodes House’s warning, “Let no one who is smoke-bearing enter here.”
           
Evocative mementoes of the past, the inscriptions collected by Adams bring insight to the vivid history of Oxford, the city and the university.

104 pages | 5 x 7 3/4 | © 2015

History: European History


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Table of Contents

Foreword
 
Exordium
 
Praefatio
Respublica literatorum
Viva voce
Nomina
Epitaphia mortuorum
Epigrammata alibi collocata
Inscriptionum syllogae antehac confectae
Exemplarum collectio
 
Exempla
 
Roman Chronology
The calendar
The chronogram
 
Some Epigraphic Abbreviations
 
Index

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