The Classical Tripos is the taught course in
classics
Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek literature, Ancient Greek and Roman literature and ...
at the
Faculty of Classics,
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...
. It is equivalent to ''
Literae Humaniores'' at
Oxford University
The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...
. It is traditionally a three-year degree, but for those who have not previously studied Latin and Greek, a four-year course has been introduced. It is not essential to have a Greek
A-Level to study for the three-year degree as intensive Greek teaching is available, but most students will have a Latin A-Level.
Classics at Cambridge consists of language (
Greek and
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 ...
),
classical literature,
ancient history
Ancient history is a time period from the History of writing, beginning of writing and recorded human history through late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the development of Sumerian language, ...
,
classical art and
archaeology
Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...
,
classical philosophy
Classical may refer to:
European antiquity
*Classical antiquity, a period of history from roughly the 7th or 8th century B.C.E. to the 5th century C.E. centered on the Mediterranean Sea
* Classical architecture, architecture derived from Greek an ...
, and
linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...
.
Parts of the degree
Prelims to Part I
Taken by those doing the four-year course, this is an introduction to Latin, with Greek being taken up in Part IA.
Part IA
During the first year, undergraduates take subjects to gain a general idea of the ancient world and to discover which area is most appealing to them. Much of the work is language based; written texts are a major source of evidence for classical antiquity and so there is an emphasis in Part I on developing fluent, accurate reading skills in both Greek and Latin.
Although roughly three-quarters of the course is taken up with developing language skills, both centred on the set texts and in unseen translation, students are also expected to study literature, philosophy, history, linguistics and philology, and art and archaeology.
Part IB
There is a wider choice in the second year and undergraduates narrow down their field of study. Whilst they have to study Language and Literature, the choice of Literature is wider, and they choose two out of History, Art and Archaeology, Philosophy and Linguistics.
Part II
Part II gives the widest choice. It is possible to completely focus on one subject, or to choose a broad range of subjects. Candidates take four papers, although one of these papers may be substituted by a 10,000-word
thesis
A thesis (: theses), or dissertation (abbreviated diss.), is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings.International Standard ISO 7144: D ...
.
History
The classical tripos was created in 1822 for students who had high honours in mathematics or those who were the sons of
peers. This restriction ended around 1850.
Women
Women were first allowed to sit the examination at the end of the nineteenth century.
In 1887,
Agnata Butler ( Ramsay), a student at
Girton College, was the only candidate to be placed in the top division of the first class in Classical Tripos examinations – thereby being placed above all of the men in her year. It was marked with a cartoon in
''Punch'' which was entitled 'Honour to Agnata Frances Ramsay' and showed her boarding a train's first-class compartment marked 'For Ladies Only'.
References
Sources
*
*
*{{citation , url=http://www-mcr.girton.cam.ac.uk/college.html , title=The history of Girton College , first=Aislinn , last=Muller , year=2014 , access-date=2017-03-25 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171207012714/http://www-mcr.girton.cam.ac.uk/college.html , archive-date=2017-12-07 , url-status=dead
External links
Tripos Examinations
Academic courses at the University of Cambridge
Tripos
TRIPOS (''TRIvial Portable Operating System'') is a computer operating system. Development started in 1976 at the Computer Laboratory of Cambridge University and it was headed by Dr. Martin Richards. The first version appeared in January 1978 a ...
Classical studies