An ''ars grammatica'' () is a generic or proper title for surveys of

Latin grammar Latin is a heavily inflected language with largely free word order. Nouns are inflected for number and case; pronouns and adjectives (including participles) are inflected for number, case, and gender; and verbs are inflected for person, numbe ...

. The first ''ars grammatica'' seems to have been composed by Remmius Palaemon (first century AD), but is now lost. The most famous ''ars grammatica'' since

late antiquity Late antiquity marks the period that comes after the end of classical antiquity and stretches into the onset of the Early Middle Ages. Late antiquity as a period was popularized by Peter Brown (historian), Peter Brown in 1971, and this periodiza ...

has been that composed by Donatus and was one of the first experimental texts printed by Gutenberg.

Donatus' ''Ars Grammatica''

Two ''artes grammaticae'' circulate under the name Donatus. The first, the ''Ars Minor'', is a brief overview of the eight parts of speech: noun, pronoun, verb, adverb, participle, conjunction, preposition, and interjection (''nomen, pronomen, verbum, adverbium, participium, conjunctio, praepositio, interjectio''). The text is presented entirely in a question-and-answer format (e.g. "How many numbers does a noun have?" "Two: singular and plural."). Donatus' ''Ars Major'' is only a little longer, but on a much more elevated plane. It consists of a list of stylistic faults and graces, including tropes such as

metaphor A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide, or obscure, clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are usually meant to cr ...

synecdoche Synecdoche ( ) is a type of metonymy; it is a figure of speech that uses a term for a part of something to refer to the whole (''pars pro toto''), or vice versa (''totum pro parte''). The term is derived . Common English synecdoches include '' ...

allegory As a List of narrative techniques, literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a wikt:narrative, narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a meaning with moral or political signi ...

, and sarcasm. Donatus also includes schemes such as zeugma and anaphora.

Diomedes' ''Ars Grammatica''

The ''Ars Grammatica'' or ''De Oratione et Partibus Orationis et Vario Genere Metrorum libri III'' by Diomedes Grammaticus is a

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

grammatical

treatise A treatise is a Formality, formal and systematic written discourse on some subject concerned with investigating or exposing the main principles of the subject and its conclusions."mwod:treatise, Treatise." Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Acc ...

. Diomedes probably wrote in the late 4th century AD. The treatise is dedicated to a certain Athanasius. *Book I the eight parts of speech *Book II the elementary ideas of grammar and of style *Book III poetry, quantity, and meters The third book on poetry is particularly valuable, containing extracts from

Suetonius Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus (), commonly referred to as Suetonius ( ; – after AD 122), was a Roman historian who wrote during the early Imperial era of the Roman Empire. His most important surviving work is ''De vita Caesarum'', common ...

' ''De poetica''. This book contains one of the most complete lists of types of

dactylic hexameter Dactylic hexameter is a form of meter used in Ancient Greek epic and didactic poetry as well as in epic, didactic, satirical, and pastoral Latin poetry. Its name is derived from Greek (, "finger") and (, "six"). Dactylic hexameter consists o ...

s in antiquity, including the ''teres versus'', which may be the so-called golden line. The ''Ars'' of Diomedes still exists in a complete form (although probably abridged). It was first published in a collection of Latin Grammarians printed at Venice by

Nicolas Jenson Nicholas (or Nicolas) Jenson (c. 1420–1480) was a French engraver, pioneer, printer and type designer who carried out most of his work in Venice, Italy. Jenson acted as Master of the French Royal Mint at Tours and is credited with being the cr ...

in about 1476. The best edition of Diomedes's ''Ars Grammatica'' is in ''Grammatici Latini'' vol. I by Heinrich Keil.

Alcuin's ''Ars Grammatica''

In around the 790s, Alcuin of York composed an ''Ars grammatica'' as the first of a group of four ''opera didascalica'' ('educational works') in question-and-answer form rooted in Donatus's ''Ars grammatica''. The other three texts were ''De orthographia'', ''Ars rhetorica'', and ''De dialectica''. Alcuin's ''Ars grammatica'' begins with a section ''Disputatio de vera philosophia'' ('dialogue on true philosophy'). In the assessment of Rita Copeland and Ineke Sluiter, 'the content of these works is highly derivative, but the pedagogy is innovative, and the way in which the work of compilation has been executed gives a new ideological twist to traditional material'.

Other works of ''ars grammatica''

Other extant works of ''Ars grammatica'' have been written by * Charisius (fourth century) * Gaius Marius Victorinus (fourth century)Victorinus. ''Ars grammatica''. Ed. I. Mariotti (Florence: Felice le Monnier, 1967). *

Maurus Servius Honoratus Servius, distinguished as Servius the Grammarian ( or ), was a late fourth-century and early fifth-century grammarian. He earned a contemporary reputation as the most learned man of his generation in Italy; he authored a set of commentaries o ...

(fourth to fifth century) *Pseudo- Remmius Palaemon

References

External links

On-line Latin texts of major Latin grammarians at the ''Corpus Grammaticorum Latinorum''
* of

William Smith (lexicographer) Sir William Smith (20 May 1813 – 7 October 1893) was an English lexicographer. He became known for his advances in the teaching of Greek and Latin in schools. Early life Smith was born in Municipal Borough of Enfield, Enfield in 1813 to Nonco ...

Latin texts of all of Aelius Donatus
including the ''Ars Minor'' and all the parts of the ''Ars Major'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Ars Grammatica Latin grammar Texts in Latin Grammar books