라틴어 문법서에 나타나는 문학과 글쓰기 기초 교육

Abstract

The ars grammatica, one of the subject of the trivium taught in medieval universities of Europe, has a long history of more than two thousand years. Despite its importance in the history of western education and culture, the ars grammatica had more often than not been regarded as a subject inferior to philosophy and rhetorics. It played, however, in Rome, the role of preserving and developing the literary and rhetorical tradition. It was the ars grammatica that first introduced the Roman children to the great literature of Rome, that first taught them how to read and interpret their great poets, and that first taught them basic elements of the rhetorics. As is seen in the grammatical works of Donatus, Priscianus and Maximus Victorinus, the grammatical teaching of the Latin language in Rome was practiced not in the linguistic level, but in the perspective of literature and rhetorical writing. The explanations on the rules of Latin found in grammatical texts are not for the everyday usage of the language. They are explanations relevant to the literary usages and writing skills. The ars grammatica teaches the students how to pronounce, recite and interpret correctly verses, and what to avoid in oratorical composition. In other words, the ars grammatica in Antiquity was the grammar for the literature and the rhetorics. The Classical Latin, the language in which the Roman literature and oratorial speeches were written, was a highly artificial and refined language, somewhat different from the everyday language of people. Training in this language, which was prerequisite for the education of the children who would be in charge of the state in the future, was de inthrough the grammatical teaching in the schools of the grammatici. The heavy dependence on their literary and oratorical authority in this stage of education was inevitable, since they could not llitn the literary language witon t resal ing to the usages of their great authors. Thus the ars grammatica in Antiquity played a tantamount role not only of an educational tool but also of the transmitter of the Roman literary and rhetorical tradition.