A grammar dispute in Tübingen (1585/1586) and its implications
Raf Van Rooy | Center for the Historiography of Linguistics, KU Leuven | University of Oslo
In this article, I discuss a grammar dispute that took place between Philipp Nicodemus Frischlin and Martin Crusius in
Tübingen in the winter of 1585/1586. I argue that their diverging views on the ablative case reflect a disagreement on two levels, in
addition to their obvious personal rivalry: (1) the foundations of grammar, which Frischlin based on meaning rather than form, following
J. C. Scaliger, and (2) contrasting attitudes toward the Greek people and heritage. Additionally, I discuss Frischlin’s views on the
article and the optative mood, while also tracing a popular misquote from Scaliger’s work to Frischlin.
Article outline
1.Introduction
2.Context: The ablative and Renaissance grammatical thought
3.Frischlin’s Greek ablative
4.Beyond the ablative: The article and the optative
5.By way of conclusion: The ablative as smoking gun
6.Appendix – The Greek article as flabellum: A bon mot and its vicissitudes
1829A Dissertation on the Course and Probable Termination of the Niger. London: John Murray.
Eskuche, Balthasar Ludwig
ed.1750Dissertationes philologicae tres de vera literarum Graecarum pronunciatione, de autoritate notularum, vetustiora Graecorum scripta distinguentium atque de ablativo Graecorum. Quas ob raritatem suam et in usum auditorum suorum denuo edidit Balthas. Ludovicus Eskuche. Rintelii [Rinteln]: Sumtibus Nicolai Striederi.
Frischlin, Nicodemus
1585Latina grammatice: Compendiose scripta pro tironibus. Tubingae [Tübingen]: Excudebat Georgius Gruppenbachius, sumptibus auctoris.
Frischlin, Nicodemus
1586Demonstratio, Graecos non carere ablativo. Argentorati [Strasbourg]: Excudebat Antonius Bertramus.
Frischlin, Nicodemus
1587 [15841]. Strigilis grammatica, denuo ab auctore recognita et aucta. […] Dialogi tres, adversus Martinum quendam Crusium, professorem Tubinganum. [S. l.]: [S. n.].
Frischlin, Nicodemus
1589Grammaticae Graecae cum Latina vere congruentis, pars prima […]. Helmstadii [Helmstadt]: Excudebat Iacobus Lucius, impensis Ludolphi Brandes.
Frischlin, Nicodemus
1590Graecae grammaticae cum Latina vere congruentis, libri quatuor posteriores […]. Helmstadii [Helmstadt]: Excudebat Iacobus Lucius, impensis Ludolphi Brandes.
Frischlin, Nicodemus
1606Methodus declamandi (posthuma) in laudatione, thesi de laudibus mulierum demonstrata […]. Argentinae [Strasbourg]: Typis Iohannis Caroli.
Gildersleeve, Basil L.
1902 “I. – Problems in Greek Syntax. II. The Article.” American Journal of Philology 23:2.121–141.
Glass, Salomon
1653Philologiae sacrae, qua totius sacrosanctae Veteris et Novi Testamenti Scripturae, tum stylus et literatura, tum sensus et genuinae interpretationis ratio expenditur, libri quinque […]. Francofurti et Hamburgi [Frankfurt & Hamburg]: Sumtibus Zachariae Hertelii.
Green, Thomas Sheldon
1842A Treatise on the Grammar of the New Testament Dialect; Embracing observations on the literal interpretation of numerous passages. London: Samuel Bagster & Sons.
Keil, Heinrich
ed.1855–80Grammatici Latini. 71 vols. Lipsiae [Leipzig]: in aedibus B. G. Teubneri.
Lancelot, Claude
1655Nouvelle methode pour apprendre facilement la langue Greque […]. À Paris: de l’Imprimerie d’Antoine Vitré, chez Pierre le Petit.
Lipsius, Justus
1575Antiquarum lectionum commentarius, tributus in libros quinque; in quibus varia scriptorum loca, Plauti praecipue, illustrantur aut emendantur. Antverpiae [Antwerp]: Ex Officina Christophori Plantini. Loeb Classical Library[URL] [last accessed December 21, 2020].
Middleton, T[homas] F[anshaw]
1808The Doctrine of the Greek Article; applied to the criticism and the illustration of the New Testament. London: Printed by Luke Hansard & Sons, for T. Cadell and W. Davies.
Osiander [praeses], Johann Adam & David Hoeschel
[respondens]. 1660Exercitatio IV. De nominibus Dei […]. Tubingae [Tübingen]: Typis Kernerianis.
Owen, John
1655Vindiciae Evangelicae or The mystery of the Gospell Vindicated, and Socinianisme Examined […]. Oxford: Printed by Leon. Lichfield.
Sánchez de las Brozas, Francisco
1587Minerva: Seu de causis linguae Latinae. Salmanticae [Salamanca]: Apud Ioannem et Andraeam Renaut, fratres.
Saturnio, Agostino
1997 [1546]Mercurius maior sive grammaticae institutiones. ed. by Manuel Mañas Núñez. (= Grammatica Humanistica. Serie textos, 2.) Cáceres: Universidad de Extremadura.
Scaliger, Julius Caesar
1540De causis linguae Latinae libri tredecim. Lugduni [Lyon]: Apud Seb. Gryphium. [See
Lardet et al. 2019
for a critical edition.]
Schaff, Philip
1883A Companion to the Greek Testament and the English Version. New York: Harper & Brothers.
Stark
1860 “Marotique (style)”. Complément de l’encyclopédie moderne: dictionnaire abrégé des sciences, des lettres, des arts de l’industrie, de l’agriculture et du commerce ed. by Noel des Vergers, Léon Renier & Édouard Carteron, 91:3–5. Paris: Firmin Didot frères.
Stuart, M[oses B.]
1834 “Hints and Cautions respecting the Greek Article”. Biblical Repository 4:13.277–327.
1837Œuvres posthumes […]: Leçons de grammaire et de logique. Vie de Reid. Paris: Chez L. Hachette.
Tooke, John Horne
1786Ἔπεα πτερόεντα: or, the diversions of Purley. London: Printed for J. Johnson.
Secondary literature
Ahačič, Kozma
2014The History of Linguistic Thought and Language Use in 16th Century Slovenia. (= Thought, Society, Culture: Slovenian and South Eastern European Perspectives, 1.) Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
Ben-Tov, Asaph
2009Lutheran Humanists and Greek Antiquity: Melanchthonian scholarship between universal history and pedagogy. (= Brill’s Studies in Intellectual History, 183.) Leiden & Boston: Brill.
Betz, Andreas
ed.2020Salomo Glassius. Christlicher Glaubensgrund: Edition, Kommentar und Studien. Norderstedt: PubliQation.
2020 “Martin Crusius (1526–1607) and the Discovery of Ottoman Greece”. PhD dissertation, Princeton: Princeton University.
Campanini, Saverio
2013 “Christian Hebraists: Renaissance period”. Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics ed. by Geoffrey Khan, 11.440–449. Leiden & Boston: Brill.
Clerico, Geneviève
1982 “Plurilinguisme et grammaire théorique chez F. Sanctius”. Réforme, Humanisme, Renaissance 15:1.46–55.
2010a “Comparative Concepts and Descriptive Categories in Crosslinguistic Studies”. Language 86:3.663–687.
Haspelmath, Martin
2010b “The Interplay between Comparative Concepts and Descriptive Categories (Reply to Newmeyer)”. Language 86:3.696–699.
Kühlmann, Wilhelm
2000 “Nicodemus Frischlin (1547–1590): Der unbequeme Dichter”. Humanismus im deutschen Südwesten: Biographische Profile ed. by Paul Gerhard Schmidt, 265–288. Stuttgart: Jan Thorbecke.
Lamers, Han, Toon Van Hal & Sebastiaan G. Clercx
2020 “How to Deal with Scholarly Forgetting in the History of the Humanities: Starting points for discussion”. History of Humanities 5:1.5–29.
Lardet, Pierre, Geneviève Clerico & Bernard Colombat
eds.2019Jules-César Scaliger. De causis linguae Latinae. Des causes de la langue latine. 21 vols. (= Travaux d’Humanisme et Renaissance, 594.) Genève: Droz.
Lindop, Grevel
ed.2001The Works of Thomas De Quincey. Vol. XII: Articles from Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine 1840–1. London: Pickering & Chatto.
Luhrman, G[erard] J[ohannes]
1994 “Augustinus Saturnius Laza and his Place in the Grammatical Tradition”. Perspectives on English: Studies in honour of professor Emma Vorlat ed. by Keith Carlon, Kristin Davidse & Brygida Rudzka-Ostyn, 21–33. (Orbis / Supplementa, 2.) Leuven & Paris: Peeters.
Matthaios, Stephanos & Raf Van Rooy
Forthcoming. “The Greeks’ Idle Instrument: The article from ancient Greece to the Renaissance”. Beiträge zur Geschichte der Sprachwissenschaft.
Maxwell, Alexander
2018 “When Theory is a Joke: The Weinreich witticism in linguistics”. Beiträge zur Geschichte der Sprachwissenschaft 28:2.263–292.
Mazzocco, Angelo
1993Linguistic Theories in Dante and the Humanists: Studies of language and intellectual history in late medieval and early Renaissance Italy. (= Brill’s Studies in Intellectual History, 38.) Leiden, New York & Köln: E.J. Brill.
Newmeyer, Frederick J.
2010 “On Comparative Concepts and Descriptive Categories: A reply to Haspelmath”. Language 86:3.688–695.
Peetermans, Andy
2020 “The Art of Transforming Traditions: Conceptual developments in early modern American missionary grammar writing”. PhD dissertation, Leuven: KU Leuven.
Robins, Robert H[enry]
1993The Byzantine Grammarians: Their place in history. (= Trends in Linguistics: Studies and Monographs, 70.) Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
1943 “Martin Crusius und Nicodemus Frischlin”. Zeitschrift für Württembergische Landesgeschichte 71.323–366.
Strauss, David Friedrich
1856Leben und Schriften des Dichters und Philologen Nicodemus Frischlin: Ein Beitrag zur deutschen Culturgeschichte in der zweiten Hälfte des sechszehnten Jahrhunderts. Frankfurt am Main: Literarische Anstalt.
Swain, Simon
2002 “Bilingualism in Cicero? The evidence of code-switching”. Bilingualism in Ancient Society: Language contact and the written text ed. by James Noel Adams, Mark Janse & Simon Swain, 128–167. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Uría, Javier
2017 “Septimus Casus: The history of a misunderstanding from Varro to the late Latin grammarians”. Journal of Latin Linguistics 16:2.239–266.
Van Rooy, Raf
2020aLanguage or Dialect? The history of a conceptual pair. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Van Rooy, Raf
2020b “Het Grieks gedomesticeerd: De Erasmiaanse uitspraak en de taalideologie van Adolf van Meetkercke (1528–1591)”. Lampas: Tijdschrift voor Nederlandse classici 53:4.450–474.
Van Rooy, Raf
2020c “An Ablative for the Greeks? Frischlin vs. Crusius on grammar (I)”. Adendros (blog). October12 2020
Van Rooy, Raf
2020d “An Ablative for the Greeks? Frischlin vs. Crusius on grammar (II)”. Adendros (blog). October27 2020
Van Rooy, Raf
Forthcoming. “L’appropriation de la grammaire grecque dans le contexte romain”. Le contexte en question ed. by Gerda Haßler London ISTE
Wheelis, Samuel M.
1974 “Publish and Perish: On the martyrdom of Philipp Nicodemus Frischlin”. Neophilologus 58:1.41–51.
2023. Introduction: the crosslinguistic application of grammatical categories in the history of linguistics. Language & History 66:2 ► pp. 89 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 4 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.