Arcadius Avellanus, born Mogyoróssy Arkád (6 February 1851 – 16 June 1935), was a

Hungarian American Hungarian Americans ( Hungarian: ''amerikai magyarok'') are Americans of Hungarian descent. The U.S. Census Bureau has estimated that there are approximately 1.396 million Americans of Hungarian descent as of 2018. The total number of people wit ...

scholar of

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

and a proponent of Living Latin. Mogyoróssy was born in

Esztergom Esztergom ( ; german: Gran; la, Solva or ; sk, Ostrihom, known by alternative names) is a city with county rights in northern Hungary, northwest of the capital Budapest. It lies in Komárom-Esztergom County, on the right bank of the river ...

. Few details of his life in Europe are known with certainty; he is said to have spoken Latin as a child before he was fluent in Hungarian. He studied extensively in Europe and used Latin whenever possible, in preference to any other language. He emigrated to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

in 1878, where he adopted a Latin translation of his original name; the

common hazel ''Corylus avellana'', the common hazel, is a species of flowering plant in the birch family Betulaceae. It is native to Europe and western Asia. It is an important component of the hedgerows that were the traditional field boundaries in lowland En ...

is "mogyoró" in Hungarian and ''Corylus avellana'' in Latin. Avellanus edited the ''Praeco Latinus'' ("Latin Herald") in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...

from 1894 to 1902. He later taught at a number of second- and third-level institutions, becoming a

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professo ...

at St. John's College in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

. He founded a Latin-speaking club known as the ''Societas Gentium Latina, Inc.'' On his eightieth birthday the club held a dinner in his honor in one of the Hungarian restaurants where he gathered nightly with friends with whom he could converse in Latin. Avellanus advocated Latin as an

international auxiliary language An international auxiliary language (sometimes acronymized as IAL or contracted as auxlang) is a language meant for communication between people from all different nations, who do not share a common first language. An auxiliary language is primaril ...

, deriding

Esperanto Esperanto ( or ) is the world's most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Created by the Warsaw-based ophthalmologist L. L. Zamenhof in 1887, it was intended to be a universal second language for international communic ...

as "Desperanto".

Publications

His "Tusculum" system for learning spoken Latin was described in several editions: * ''Tusculum; folia latina menstrua ad disciplinam linguae latinae viva voce tradendam.'' (published serially in Philadelphia, 1893–6) * ''Palaestra, being the primer of the Tusculan system of learning, and of teaching Latin to speak; for class use and for self-instruction'': (3rd edition, Philadelphia, 1908) * ''Arena palaestrarum'' (''pars prior'' 1893; ''pars secunda'' 1900) * ''Fabulae tusculanae, ad suppeditandam praeceptoribus studiosisque materiam latinum sermonem vivae vocis adminiculo docendi et discendi.'' (first edition New York 1913; second edition Brooklyn 1928), a student reader He also edited, with commentary, an edition of

Corderius Corderius ( Latinized form of the name Mathurin Cordier; c. 1479 – 8 September 1564), was a French-born theologian, teacher, humanist, and pedagogian active in Geneva, Republic of Geneva. He taught at the School of Lausanne (now the University o ...

' ''Colloquia''. He made translations into Latin of popular fiction, published by Ezra Parmalee Prentice as Mount Hope Classics. Charles H. Forbes of

Phillips Academy ("Not for Self") la, Finis Origine Pendet ("The End Depends Upon the Beginning") Youth From Every Quarter Knowledge and Goodness , address = 180 Main Street , city = Andover, Massachusetts, Andover , stat ...

criticized the language used as not faithful to that of the classical authors. However, Avellanus was a major proponent of breaking free of classical Latin models. In response, he defended his post-classical Latinity and criticized the rationale of classicists, many of whom he despised:

Monebat Dr. Avellanus unum ex eiusmodi critica (sic) constare, praeceptores nostros nunquam antea librum Latinum vidisse praeter textus sibi ad tractandum praepositos. Nam si omnis liber qui a stylo Ciceronis differret, reiciendus esset, praeter quattuor primores auctores Romanos tota litteratura Latina binum millium annorum flammis esset abolenda: proinde patres Ecclesiae, Scholastici, Biblia Latina, omnia Chronica Monastica, opera Erasmi, Lutheri, Calvini, Philippi Melanchthonis, Capnionis, Hugonis Grotii, Baconum, omnium philologorum, physicorum, astronomorum, uno verbo, omnia opera Latina, omnes bibliothecae esset comburenda. Nemo nisi insaniat, critico eiusmodi adstipulabitur.

Translation:

Dr. Avellanus was warning that one thing was clear from this sort of criticism: that our teachers had never before seen a book in Latin except for those texts that they had been assigned to discuss. For if every book must be rejected that differs from the style of
Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the esta ...
, the entire body of Latin literature of the last two thousand years, except for the first four Roman authors, must be tossed into the fire; moreover, those
Church Fathers The Church Fathers, Early Church Fathers, Christian Fathers, or Fathers of the Church were ancient and influential Christian theologians and writers who established the intellectual and doctrinal foundations of Christianity. The historical per ...
,
Scholastics Scholasticism was a medieval school of philosophy that employed a critical organic method of philosophical analysis predicated upon the Aristotelian 10 Categories. Christian scholasticism emerged within the monastic schools that translate ...
, the
Latin Bible The Bible translations into Latin date back to classical antiquity. Latin translations of the Bible were used in the Western part of the former Roman Empire until the Reformation. Those translations are still used along with translations from Latin ...
, all Monk Chronicles, the works of
Erasmus Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (; ; English: Erasmus of Rotterdam or Erasmus;''Erasmus'' was his baptismal name, given after St. Erasmus of Formiae. ''Desiderius'' was an adopted additional name, which he used from 1496. The ''Roterodamus'' w ...
,
Luther Luther may refer to: People * Martin Luther (1483–1546), German monk credited with initiating the Protestant Reformation * Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968), American minister and leader in the American civil rights movement * Luther (gi ...
,
Calvin Calvin may refer to: Names * Calvin (given name) ** Particularly Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States * Calvin (surname) ** Particularly John Calvin, theologian Places In the United States * Calvin, Arkansas, a hamlet * Calvi ...
,
Philipp Melanchthon Philip Melanchthon. (born Philipp Schwartzerdt; 16 February 1497 – 19 April 1560) was a German Lutheran reformer, collaborator with Martin Luther, the first systematic theologian of the Protestant Reformation, intellectual leader of the Lut ...
, Capnion,
Hugo Grotius Hugo Grotius (; 10 April 1583 – 28 August 1645), also known as Huig de Groot () and Hugo de Groot (), was a Dutch humanist, diplomat, lawyer, theologian, jurist, poet and playwright. A teenage intellectual prodigy, he was born in Delft ...
,
Bacon Bacon is a type of salt-cured pork made from various cuts, typically the belly or less fatty parts of the back. It is eaten as a side dish (particularly in breakfasts), used as a central ingredient (e.g., the bacon, lettuce, and tomato sand ...
, the works of all
philologists Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined ...
,
physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...
s,
astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, moons, comets and galaxies – in either ...
s, in one word, the whole body of
Latin literature Latin literature includes the essays, histories, poems, plays, and other writings written in the Latin language. The beginning of formal Latin literature dates to 240 BC, when the first stage play in Latin was performed in Rome. Latin literature ...
--all libraries--must be burned. Nobody, unless he's insane, will support this kind of critic.

''Protocolla e sessione secunda et quadragesima Societatis gentium Latinae, Intabulatae''

References

External links

* *
Short biography and index of works (in Latin)

''Praeco Latinus'', Vol. 2 et 3
(1895-1897) at HathiTrust
''Praeco Latinus'', Vol. 5-8
(1898-1902) at HathiTrust {{DEFAULTSORT:Avellanus, Arcadius Translators to Latin Emigrants from Austria-Hungary to the United States 1851 births 1935 deaths People from Esztergom Writers from New York City 19th-century translators 20th-century translators 19th-century Latin-language writers 20th-century Latin-language writers English–Latin translators