Classical Influences on European Culture A.D. 500–1500

This volume consists of original papers first read at Kings College, Cambridge, in 1969 at the International Conference on Classical Influences. The contributors are distinguished in a wide range of academic disciplines but all are concerned in one way or another with the spread and influence of classical, particularly Roman, civilisation through a number of European cultures from AD 500 to 1500. The book begins with the manuscript tradition - the contents, location and history of the literary remains that provide the basic evidence on which all research in this subject must to some extent rely. This leads naturally to a discussion of what classical texts were actually read and studied, when, where and by whom. The majority of contributors go on to examine the Roman tradition as a positive cultural on language, literature, philosophy and art. Classical civilisation is shown to be a live historical force whose survival consists rather in the creative responses and developments it has inspired than in the mere preservation of its physical relics.