A New Method of Learning with Greater Facility the Greek Tongue

From Wythepedia: The George Wythe Encyclopedia
Jump to navigation Jump to search

by Claude Lancelot

A New Method of Learning with Greater Facility the Greek Tongue
Title not held by The Wolf Law Library
at the College of William & Mary.
  
Author Claude Lancelot
Editor
Translator Thomas Nugent
Published :
Date
Edition Precise edition unknown
Language
Volumes volume set
Pages
Desc. 8vo

Claude Lancelot (1615-95) was a French grammarian. [1] He was born in Paris, and was a member of the prestigious Port-Royal society of grammarians.[2] The society published works on the subject of the theory behind grammar and logic, exploring the boundaries and roles of both disciplines.[3] The Port-Royal grammarians felt that the study of language and grammar was relevant to our understanding of humanity, believing that "[…] speech is what it is in virtue of what it signifies and, for the Port-Royal authors, it signifies the contents […] or the operations of the mind."[4] The society's work was thus highly ideological.

While Lancelot was a key player in the society, he also worked as a teacher, particularly for children.[5] As an educator, he differed from other teachers of grammar and found success because of his rational approach to the subject matter.[6] "A New Method of Learning with Greater Facility the Greek Tongue" was written to be an educational tool. Lancelot "made an excellent use of the grammarians that went before him; and by his method he far outstripped them all."[7] Lancelot streamlined the material by "distinguishing necessary rules from others, by way of text and annotations; [and] in retrenching superfluities, by reducing the ten declensions of former grammarians to three [...]."[8] Thus, while Lancelot’s publication with the Port-Royal was highly ideological, this educational publication made understanding a new language as digestible as possible.

Evidence for Inclusion in Wythe's Library

Listed in the Jefferson Inventory of Wythe's Library as "Portroyal Gr. Grammar by Nugent 8vo." and given by Thomas Jefferson to his grandson Thomas Jefferson Randolph. As far as we know, Wythe's copy does not survive. It may have been one of the two copies sold by Thomas Jefferson's estate in 1829.[9] The Brown Bibliography[10] lists the third edition (1777) of A New Method of Learning with Greater Facility the Greek Tongue by Claude Lancelot and translated by Thomas Nugent. George Wythe's Library[11] on LibraryThing includes the same title with the statement, "Precise edition unknown. Several octavo editions of this work were published at Cambridge and London, the first in 1730." As yet, the Wolf Law Library has been unable to find a copy of this title.

See also


External Links

Read the 1797 edition of this book from Google Books.

References

  1. ↑ Claude Lancelot, A New Method of Learning with Faculty the Greek Tongue, trans. Thomas Nugent, (F. Wingrave, & J. Collingwood, Strand, 1817), iii.
  2. ↑ Lancelot, A New Method, iii.
  3. ↑ Bernard Roy, "Reasoned Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric at Port-Royal," Philosophy and Rhetoric 32, no. 2 (1999), 131-32.
  4. ↑ Roy, "Reasoned Grammar," 132.
  5. ↑ Lancelot, A New Method, iii.
  6. ↑ Lancelot, A New Method, iii-iv.
  7. ↑ Lancelot, A New Method, iii.
  8. ↑ Lancelot, A New Method, iii.
  9. ↑ Thomas Jefferson, Catalogue: President Jefferson's Library: A Catalogue of the Extensive and Valuable Library of the Late President Jefferson (United States: Gales and Seaton, 1829), 13:no. 837.)
  10. ↑ Bennie Brown, "The Library of George Wythe of Williamsburg and Richmond," (unpublished manuscript, 2009, rev. 2023) Microsoft Word document (on file at the Wolf Law Library, William & Mary Law School).
  11. ↑ LibraryThing, s.v. "Member: George Wythe," accessed on July 10, 2025.
Retrieved from "http://wythepedia.wm.edu/index.php?title=New_Method_of_Learning_with_Greater_Facility_the_Greek_Tongue&oldid=77755"