Jaakko Tahkokallio
In my presentation, I examine how the selection of texts used in the study of Latin changed over the Early and High Middle Ages. As the main evidence, I analyse the numbers of surviving manuscripts of classical and late-antique Latin texts. I demonstrate that over the period 800—1200 the classical texts took over the curriculum and pushed the early-Christian poetry, which dominated the pre-Carolingian study of Latin, into relative marginality. I argue that while the medieval renaissances (Carolingian, Twelfth-Century) are problematic concepts as overall cultural shorthands, they do accurately describe developments taking place within Latin education.
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Jaakko Tahkokallio studied history, comparative literature and Latin at University of Helsinki, completing his PhD on the reception of Geoffrey of Monmouth there in 2013. He then worked as a post-doctoral researcher in Helsinki (2013-2014) and in King’s College, London (2014-2015). In 2015 he took up a permanent position at the National Library of Finland, as a special collections curator.