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The hermeneutic style is a style of Latin in the later Roman and early medieval periods characterised by the extensive use of unusual and arcane words, especially derived from Greek. The style is first found in the work of Apuleius in the second century, and then in several late Roman writers. In the early medieval period, some leading Continental scholars were exponents, including Johannes Scotus Eriugena and Odo of Cluny. In England, the seventh-century bishop Aldhelm was the most influential hermeneutic writer; Latin scholarship declined in the ninth century, and when it revived in the tenth, the hermeneutic style became increasingly influential. Unlike in continental Europe, where it was only ever used by a minority of writers, in tenth-century England it became nearly universal. It was the house style of the English Benedictine Reform, the most important intellectual movement in later Anglo-Saxon England. The style fell out of favour after the Norman Conquest, and the twelfth-century chronicler William of Malmesbury described it as disgusting and bombastic. Historians were equally dismissive until the late twentieth century, when scholars such as Michael Lapidge argued that it should be taken seriously as an important aspect of late Anglo-Saxon culture. ==Definition== In 1953, Alistair Campbell argued that there were two principal styles of Latin in Anglo-Saxon England. One, which he called the classical, was exemplified by the writings of Bede (c. 672–735), while the English bishop Aldhelm (c. 639–709) was the most influential author of the other school, which extensively used rare words, including Greek ones derived from "hermeneutic" glossaries. Andy Orchard contrasts the "limpid and direct prose style of Bede, with its basically biblical vocabulary and syntax" with the "highly elaborate and ornate style of Aldhelm, with a vocabulary and syntax ultimately derived from Latin verse". Aldhelm was the most learned man in the first four centuries of Anglo-Saxon Christianity, with a profound knowledge of Latin poetry (unlike Bede). His style was highly influential in the two centuries after his death, and it was dominant in later Anglo-Saxon England. Borrowing from Greek was not confined to hermeneutic writers of Latin. In a 2005 study, J. N. Adams, Michael Lapidge and Tobias Reinhardt observe that "the exhumation of (poorly understood) Greek words from Greek-Latin glossaries for purposes of stylistic ornamentation was widespread throughout the Middle Ages." In the preface to his 1962 edition of Æthelweard's ''Chronicon'', Campbell referred to the "hermeneutic tradition". In 1975, Michael Lapidge developed Campbell's distinction in an essay on the "hermeneutic style". He stated that the term implies that the vocabulary is based mainly on the ''Hermeneumata'', a name for certain Greek-Latin glossaries. He did not consider the term entirely satisfactory, and suggested that "glossematic" would be an alternative, but adopted "hermeneutic" because it had been used by other scholars. Jane Stevenson also expresses dissatisfaction with the term, and in the view of Rebecca Stephenson: "The word "hermeneutic" itself is misleading, since this style has nothing to do with the modern field of hermeneutics, nor does it feature words drawn from the ''Hermeneumata'', a set of Greek and Latin glossaries, from which its exotic vocabulary was once thought to derive." However, both scholars reluctantly accept the term. The style was formerly called "Hisperic", but scholars now reject this term as wrongly suggesting that it is Irish, and think "Hisperic" should be confined to the language of the very obscure ''Hisperica Famina''. Lapidge states: :By "hermeneutic" I understand a style whose most striking feature is the ostentatious parade of unusual, often very arcane and apparently learned vocabulary. In Latin literature of the medieval period, this vocabulary is of three general sorts: (1) archaisms, words which were not in use in classical Latin but were exhumed by medieval authors from the grammarians or from Terence and Plautus; (2) neologisms or coinages; and (3) loan words. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「hermeneutic style」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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