BMCR 2009.07.45: Aveline on Ancona, Horace: A Legamus Transitional Reader

Ronnie Ancona, David J. Murphy, Horace: A Legamus Transitional Reader.
Mundelein, Ill.:  Bolchazy-Carducci, 2008.  Pp. xxiv, 189.  ISBN
978-0-86516-676-9.  $35.00 (pb).

Reviewed by John Aveline, latinforyou.com
Word count:  1078 words
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In the foreword to Horace: A Legamus Reader Kenneth Kitchell (co-editor
of the Legamus series) states that the transition for Latin students
from "made-up Latin" to "real" Latin is a major hurdle for the students
and one of the greatest challenges for the teachers.  In an effort to
meet this challenge Bolchazy-Carducci has created a series of readers
(although workbook might be a more accurate name), each based on a
different author, which attempts to slowly and carefully guide students
in their first efforts to handle the complexities of so-called "real"
Latin.  A fairly thorough review of the Vergil Legamus has already
appeared in BMCR[[1]]  and so a brief overview of the content and a few
comments should suffice.

The book is well fortified with peripheral material.  At the beginning
there is a foreword, which describes the Legamus series' purpose and
goals, a preface, which explains how to use the book and an
introduction to Horace (historical context, life and works as well as a
brief bibliography).  The book also includes three appendices; a
summary of Latin grammar, a list of the major figures of speech to be
found in the book's selections of Horace, an overview of metres used by
Horace and, finally, a pull-out vocabulary of some 200 words.
Sandwiched between are 203 lines from Horace's Satires and Odes.[[2]]

Each section of text is presented with roughly the same supporting
material, each with its own catchy title:

Before You Read What Horace Wrote--an introduction to the Satire or Ode
to be read with historical, cultural, and/or literary background as
appropriate and useful.

Keep This Grammar in Mind / Now It's Your Turn--one or, more often, two
grammar points which feature prominently in the passage to be read,
followed by a practice exercise.

Helping You Read What Horace Wrote--the text of the passage with
assistance in the form of vocabulary and notes.  The vocabulary offered
is extensive and the notes deal mainly with grammatical issues.  This
section is dropped as the student progresses through the book, when it
is felt that less preparation is required before the naked text may be
revealed.  At this point words in the text which go together but are
separated are in a font which is distinct from the rest of the text.

Stopping For Some Practice--a grammatical point or discussion of
English derivatives, accompanied by a practice exercise.

What Horace Actually Wrote--the text of the passage with notes and
vocabulary.  The notes here are different and are often metrical in
nature.

After Reading What Horace Wrote--some content questions as well as
topics of discussion.

There is a great deal which recommends this book to its target market
of high school Latin students and teachers.  The authors, guided by the
Legamus Committee, well recognize the aspects of 'original' Latin
poetry (and Horace in particular) which generally cause difficulties
for Latin students making that first step from simplified, text-book
Latin.  To paraphrase the foreword, these students are moving from a
narrow vocabulary, predictable word order and familiar characters
(virtually 'kid lit' written in New Latin) to elevated literature,
unpredictable word order, an individual author's quirks and a lack of
'cultural literacy'.  Having accurately identified the problem, the
authors then take up the task of attempting to solve it and they do a
pretty good job.  The idea of having a lesson on a point of grammar
which will be used in the passage under consideration is a stroke of
genius, as are writing exercises which focus on the vocabulary which
the student is about to see.  This has the effect of making the poem
familiar to the student before they read it.  But the exercises can
suffer from a certain dullness as the authors have limited themselves
by their adherence to Horace's vocabulary.

Also beneficial is providing the text with assumed words added in and
words which go together but are physically separated in the text
written in a matching font which is different from the main body of the
text or any other word pairings.

The book is also very user-friendly.  There is lots of white space on a
page and large fonts are used, both of which make it easy for students
to make notes.  The exercises also have room for answers usually,
although not always, lined.  As mentioned above, in the Helping You
Read What Horace Wrote section, different font styles and sizes are
used to graphically show students words which agree even though they
are separated within the sentence.  This is very useful and addresses
the challenge of seemingly random word order that students new to
'original' Latin face.  However, often because of the fonts chosen, the
text at times resembles a ransom note.

Despite the many fine qualities of the book, there are one or two minor
points to raise.  In general, the book feels as if it has been put
together and published under a tight deadline.  Fortunately, there does
not seem to be the frequency of typos and inconsistencies that are
found in the Vergil Legamus reader. One inconsistency which does occur
with some frequency is the seeming indecision when discussing a
literary device whether to refer the reader to the glossary of terms at
the back of the book, or to an example of the same device which has
already occurred in the textbook.  For example, on page 150 when
anaphora is used, the reader is referred to an earlier use of this
device found in the book (by poem and line number, rather than page
number), but when a tricolon appears on the same page, the reader is
referred to the list of major figures of speech in Appendix B.  It
might be easier to consistently refer the student to the glossary at
the back of the book and provide a somewhat more thorough definition.

Finally, the pull-out vocabulary at the back of the book, similar to
that found in Pharr's edition of Vergil's Aeneid I-VI is good in
theory, but less valuable in practice.  Admittedly there is only a
limited amount of Horace, but of the 200 or so entries, a good portion
of them scarcely warrant inclusion (i.e., sum, ad, in).

This textbook is a good member of the Legamus series and one which I am
and will continue to be happy to use with my students as they traverse
the minefield of literary Latin.  As the series grows and matures, I am
sure it will only improve on its good start.


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Notes:


1.    Thomas J. Sienkewicz, LeaAnn A. Osburn, Vergil. A Legamus
Transitional Reader; BMCR 2004.09.38.

2.   To be precise and in order of appearance, Satire 1.4.103-126,
Satire 1.6.70-92 and Odes 1.5, 1.23, 1.11, 3.9, 2.10, 1.37, 1.9, 3.30.
All of these can also be found in A Horace Workbook by Murphy and
Ancona.  It is interesting to note that the number of lines for each of
the Roman poets for whom a Legamus reader is created are all in the 200
range (Catullus--194, Ovid--202, Vergil--227).