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.