Latinity and Alterity in the Early Modern Period

Book excerpt: "The essays in this volume, many of which are in dialogue with Francoise Waquet's Latin or the Empire of a Sign, showcase some of the most exciting and sophisticated new work in the field of neo-Latin studies. They illustrate the significance of 'Latinity' for understanding the early modern world from a variety of disciplinary perspectives and will be of interest not only to neo-Latinists but to students of the modern European vernaculars, social historians of language, lexicographers, intellectual and scientific historians, and to cultural and cross-cultural historians. Under the second term of the title, 'Alterity, ' our volume explores humanist Latin's 'opposition' to mediaeval Latin and the modern vernaculars; the 'otherness' of women's Latinity; the construction of the non-European in Latin humanism; and the Latin writings of non-Europeans, from indigenous Americans to Africans. The exploration of these themes helps us more fully to understand what Latin 'really meant' during the early modern period."--Publisher description.