Happy Halloween...et alium rerum.

FUSELI, John Henry. The Nightmare.
1790-91. Oil on canvas. Goethe-Museum, Frankfurt.

Happy Hallowse'en! Consider Fuseli's imagining of might be the causes of a nightmare. Today our rationalistic scientists might look at nightmare's as a having only material causes. But we as Christians know better, that much of the physical events of the world have spiritual causes.
This also raises the question, quid est Halloween? When we look at how our culture, if one can call it that, celebrates this day, we are confronted with an anachronistic and moral problem: How are we as Christians supposed to think about such a holiday that is marked by such impure show and often gratuitously violent images.

Agenda:

1. Prayer
2. Quid est Halloween?
3. Lecture  on Cap I Grammar
1. Take notae bonae!
4. Review HW:
1. Study notes and concepts for Cap I.

Lingua Latina, Cap I

BRIL, Paul. Landscape with Roman Ruins.
1580. Fresco. Torre dei Venti, Vatican City, Rome.

Salvete, discipuli. (And you all say, "Salvete, Magister.") Today we are entering into the text of Lingua Latina.

Agenda:

1. Pater noster
2. Read Lingua Latina Capitulum I:
1. Do Pensum A 
2. Do Pensum C
3. Review HW:
1. Study grammar for Chapter 1.

Coriolanus, Part III

Nicolas Poussin. Coriolanus. 1640-1655.
Oil on canvas. Les Andelys, Musee Municipal.

Today we shall continue Shakespeare's Coriolanus.

Agenda:

1. Pater nost
2. Finish Shakespeare's Coriolanus
3. Review HW:
1. Study

Coriolanus, Part II

Gaspare Landi. 1756-1830.  
Veturia at the Feet of Coriolanus.

Salvete! Greetings! We will be watching a film in class this week. It is a Shakespeare play, but it is a contemporary version yet retains the Shakespearean language. Last year we learned about a number of famous Romans, completing a research project and a presentation on the significance of their stories in regards to the influence of Rome and the West. One of the characters was a man by the name of Coriolanus. Shakespeare chose him as the subject as one of his tragedies, and this year a new film version of his play has been released. It is called, aptly enough, Coriolanus, and it stands as a fitting study for our class for many reasons. Again, the language is the beautiful and powerful language of Shakespeare, and the historical and political elements of the film merit our study. 

Agenda: 

1. Pater nost
2. Continue Shakespeare's Coriolanus.
3. Review HW:
1. Cap I, Pensum A

Coriolanus, Part I

Act V, scene iii of Shakespeare's Coriolanus. 1803.
Engraved by James Caldwell. Attribution: Adam Cuerden.

Salvete! Greetings! We will be watching a film in class this week and next. It is a Shakespeare play, but it is a contemporary version yet retains the Shakespearean language. We have learned about the beginnings of Rome, and now we will learn about a number of famous Romans, eventually completing a research project and a presentation on the significance of their stories in regards to the influence of Rome and the West. One of the characters is a man by the name of Coriolanus. Shakespeare chose him as the subject as one of his tragedies, and this year a new film version of his play has been released. It is called, aptly enough, Coriolanus, and it stands as a fitting study for our class for many reasons. Again, the language is the beautiful and powerful language of Shakespeare, and the historical and political elements of the film merit our study. 

Agenda: 

1. Pater nost
2. Watch Shakespeare's Coriolanus.
3. Review HW:
1. Cap 1 Pensum A

Roma in Italia est.

WITTEL, Caspar Andriaans van. 1711.  
St Peter's in Rome. Oil on canvas. Private collection.

If you have not noticed yet, we have come to the end of the 1st Quarter. And if you have not noticed it yet, this is a real course, which requires real work and real study.  

Agenda:

1. Pater noster
2. Read Lingua Latina: Capitulum I 
1. Work with a partner on the following exercises for Cap I: 
1. Do "PENSVM A"
3. Review HW:
1. Bring Mediterranean dainties for the Roman Feast.

Ad augusta per angusta.

LOTTO, Lorenzo. Madonna and Child with 
St Ignatius of Antioch and St Onophrius.
1508. Oil on wood. Galleria Borghese, Rome.

Having come to the end of the 1st Quarter, we shall take this Homecoming Week to "let our hair down," as they say. This does not mean, however, that we will cease from being a class. It simply means that towards the end of the week we shall take our rest in convivio. Today is still a work day. After all, it is a new quarter.Therefore, ad augusta per angusta. That is, "To honor through narrowness (being pressed)."

Agenda:

1. Pater noster
2. Get the Lingua Latina text. There on the  book shelf (to the left of my desk).
3. Read Lingua Latina: Capitulum I 
1. Work with a partner on the following exercises for Cap I: 
1. Do "PENSVM A"
2. Do "PENSVM B"
3. Do "PENSVM C"
4. Review HW:
1. Be good.